June 3 coronavirus news

Delta Air Lines CEO said the company would be announcing plans to test every Delta employee for Covid-19 and antibodies.  

By the numbers: Ten Delta employees have died due to the virus, but the company has now “flattened the curve” in its workforce, he said. While it was once receiving word of between 20 and 25 positive cases daily, it now receives word of “one to two a day” among its 90,000 employees.  

The New York City Triathlon has been canceled citing coronavirus concerns. 

Organizers called it an “incredibly difficult decision,” especially following last year’s cancellation which was due to excessive heat.

Announcing the decision Wednesday, organizers said they "believe that it is the right one to protect the safety and best interest of all involved.”

The event was scheduled to take place July 19.

Strict lockdowns like the restrictions put into place in China — when the coronavirus pandemic hit — are better for economies than longer, more moderate closures like the United States and many European countries have taken, a new international study suggests.

Shorter but stricter lockdowns don’t hit businesses as hard, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Businesses can weather a short, extreme shutdown but run out of supplies and reserves as time goes on.

And if the pandemic returns, a second round of lockdowns will really hurt economies, the team led by economist Dabo Guan from Tsinghua University in China found. 

“While predicting the true cost of lockdowns is not possible at this stage, our research suggests that shorter, stricter lockdowns minimize the impact on supply chains, while gradually easing restrictions over the course of a year may also be less disruptive than a swift lifting of restrictions followed by another lockdown,” Guan said in a statement.

The team simulated three kinds of lockdown: a strict lockdown in which 80% of travel and labor ceases, similar to what China did; a more moderate lockdown with a 60% reduction in work and travel, similar to what the US did; plus a third, lighter lockdown with 40% reductions.

A gradual easing of the restrictions over a year would minimize damage to the global supply chain, they said. But if the virus resurged in the fall, forcing a second round of restrictions, costs to the economy would worsen by one-third.

“Our analysis quantifies the global economic benefits of robust public health responses and suggests that economic justifications to re-open businesses could backfire if they result in another round of lockdowns,” said Steve Davis of the University of California Irvine, who took part in the study.

Things will be even worse if countries stagger a second round of closures and restrictions instead of coordinating them if a second global lockdown occurs. A coordinated global lockdown would raise costs by 33%, but if countries just move on their own, costs will rise by 57%, the model predicts.

Lincoln Premium Poultry reports an additional 15 cases of Covid-19 at its poultry plant in Fremont, Nebraska, today, bringing their total cases to 88.  

LPP processes poultry for Costco Wholesale. 

According to company spokesperson, Jessica Kolterman, “We have watched Covid-19 cases come in each week, but we continue to keep the curve flat within our facilities and are working to improve our mitigation efforts. As we ease into the next phase and what we consider a ‘new normal’ we will report total cases to the public once a month.” 

That “new normal," according to a written statement sent to CNN, is the continued use of masks, temperature checks, social distancing and additional “interventions.” The company also states that of all their employees tested in Fremont, 110 of those tests came back negative.

According to their website, the company was established in 2016 in collaboration with Costco to serve as the poultry management for this poultry plant in Fremont, Nebraska.  

UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma has been tested for coronavirus and is self-isolating, after looking visibly unwell while giving a statement at the UK Parliament earlier on Wednesday. 

Sharma was seen profusely sweating and repeatedly wiping his face with a handkerchief and holding his forehead during his speech at the House of Commons.

“Secretary of State Alok Sharma began feeling unwell when in the chamber delivering the second reading of the Corporate Governance and Insolvency Bill. In line with guidance he has been tested for coronavirus and has returned home to self-isolate,” the press office for Sharma's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told CNN.

Hundreds of MPs returned to UK Parliament to take part in a socially-distanced voting procedure on Wednesday.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the death of a 9-month-old child is now on the list of Covid-19-related deaths.

He said while the leading cause of death in this case was not Covid-19, it was a contributing factor.

Kentucky Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said in normal world without Covid-19, SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, would have been considered the cause of death — but because the child tested as positive for novel coronavirus, the state’s reporting methodology has this case listed as a Covid-related death.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf will allow the stay-at-home order to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday evening.

He renewed the 90-day disaster declaration which was originally signed March 6. The declaration was set to expire Thursday.

The declaration provides the state extra support to respond to coronavirus and for recovery during reopening. 

Sao Paulo's government projected that the coronavirus cases in the state could double by the end of June. 

At the end of May, Sao Paulo state – which includes the city of Sao Paulo – had reported a total of 109,698 cases and the government projected that by the end of June the cases could reach between 190,000 to 265,000, the state’s Vice-Gov. Rodrigo Garcia said at a news conference Wednesday.

The state on Tuesday reported a record 327 daily coronavirus-related deaths. 

Claiming the advance of the epidemic is "within the predicted dimension,” Garcia said, “this increase we've seen in the past few days is not surprising. In April, the epidemic grew 10 times. In May, 3.6 times. For June, we expect the number of cases to grow between 1.7 and 2.4 times.”

On Wednesday, Sao Paulo reported 5,188 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 123,483.

Last week, the mayor of Sao Paulo city announced a gradual reopening of certain sectors, despite the continued spike of infections and deaths.

US stocks finished higher after rallying all day. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite logged their fourth straight day of gains. For the Dow, it was the third up day.

Market sentiment was boosted by a much better than expected ADP employment report, which shored up hopes that the worst might be over for America’s battered labor market.

Here's how the markets closed today: