Pennsylvania governor to allow stay-at-home order to expire Thursday
From CNN’s Lauren del Valle
A person wearing a protective face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus walks past stuttered businesses in Philadelphia, on Thursday, May 7. Matt Rourke/AP
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.
“Pennsylvanians have done a tremendous job flattening the curve and case numbers continue to decrease,” Wolf said in a statement Wednesday. “Renewing the disaster declaration helps state agencies with resources and supports as we continue mitigation and recovery.”
4:51 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Sao Paulo government projects coronavirus cases could double by the end of June
From CNN's Rodrigo Pedroso in Sao Paulo
Health workers from Doctors Without Borders visit a squatters camp to conduct medical examinations to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus in Sao Bernardo do Campo in the greater Sao Paulo area of Brazil on Wednesday. Andre Penner/AP
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.
4:33 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
US stocks closed higher after better than expected employment report
From CNN’s Anneken Tappe
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:
The Dow finished up 2.1%, or 527 points.
The S&P 500 ended 1.4% higher.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8%.
4:10 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Trump said he took hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus — but new study shows that doesn’t work
From CNN's Elizabeth Cohen
George Frey/AFP/Getty Images
On the heels of several studies showing hydroxychloroquine doesn’t help patients in the hospital with Covid-19, a new study – the first of its kind – shows the drug doesn’t work to prevent infection with the virus, either.
The study of 821 people is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, considered the gold standard in medicine. The study was expected to be published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers assigned about half the study subjects to take hydroxychloroquine and half to take a placebo, or a pill that does nothing. Neither the researchers nor the study subjects knew who was taking hydroxychloroquine and who was taking a placebo. They found the drug didn’t make a difference – over the next two weeks, the study subjects came down with Covid symptoms in equal amounts.
The study’s senior author, Dr. David Boulware, says that on May 9, the White House physician sent him an email asking his opinion of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure against Covid-19.
Boulware, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota, says he advised Trump’s physician that there was no published research showing hydroxychloroquine worked preventatively and shared that people in his study who took hydroxychloroquine had higher rates of side effects, mostly gastrointestinal problems such as nausea and vomiting.
On May 18, Trump announced that he’d been taking the medicine for a week and a half.
“I knew they were probably going to ignore what I said because the White House had been talking about hydroxychloroquine for weeks and weeks and weeks,” Boulware said.
3:36 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Trump administration has picked 5 companies most likely to produce coronavirus vaccine
From CNN's Jim Acosta
The Trump administration has selected five companies as the most likely to produce a Covid-19 vaccine, a White House Coronavirus task force source tells CNN.
The same source added that the decision came from "Operation Warp Speed," which seeks to quickly ramp up production, organize distribution and determine who gets the first doses of a potential vaccine.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has previously suggested January as a potential date for a vaccine, but vaccines typically take years to produce.
The New York Times first reported that the administration had selected five companies most likely to produce a vaccine.
3:21 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
World Health Organization "very concerned" about coronavirus in Haiti
From CNN's Mia Alberti, Chandler Thornton and Etant Dupain.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it is "very concerned" about the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic in Haiti.
"We are very concerned about Haiti at the moment because of its unique circumstances, unique fragility and the fact that the disease is accelerating in a highly vulnerable population", WHO's Executive Director for Health Emergencies, Michael Ryan, said during a press conference.
"What has been common to many regions has been intense community transmission and it is clear that once community transmission has been established it's very difficult to root the virus out", Ryan added.
By the numbers: Haiti has reported at least 2,507 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and at least 48 deaths, according to the latest report by the Haitian Ministry of Health from June 1.
3:26 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Brazil will be first country outside UK to test vaccine developed by Oxford University
From CNN’s Shasta Darlington, Mia Alberti and Rodrigo Pedroso
Oxford University Pool/AP
Two thousand Brazilians will participate in June tests of a vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Oxford University in partnership with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical, the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian Ministry of Health approved the beginning of the study that will vaccinate 1,000 patients in São Paulo and 1,000 more in Rio de Janeiro.
The country is the first site of these vaccination tests outside the United Kingdom.
The study will happen as Brazil is registering an increase in the number of cases and deaths. Tuesday's reported death toll of 1,262 was a record for a 24-hour period.
Brazil's biggest cities have started to relax the social isolation rules imposed since mid-March.
“The most important thing is to carry out this stage of the study now when the epidemiological curve is still rising and the results may be more assertive", the lead investigator of the study in Brazil and researcher at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Lily Yin Weckx, said.
Other countries will also participate in the study and the official registration of the vaccine is expected to be made later this year in the United Kingdom, Unifesp said in its statement.
Brazil is now the country with the second-highest number of cases after the United States, and the rate of infections continues to rise.
2:37 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Restaurants in 7 regions across New York can reopen outdoor seating tomorrow
From CNN's Sheena Jones
At least seven regions in New York are ready to enter phase two and reopen restaurants for outdoor seating beginning tomorrow, according to a news release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.
Restaurants in Capital Region, Central New York, Finger Lakes, the Mohawk Valley, the North County, the Southern Tier and Western New York can all reopen for outdoor seating, the release says.
Here are the guidelines restaurants must follow:
Outdoor tables must be spaced six feet apart
All staff must wear face coverings
Customers must also wear face coverings when not seated
New York state reported its lowest daily coronavirus death toll so far, with 49 deaths reported yesterday, Cuomo announced in a news conference today. The state confirmed 1,045 additional cases of Covid-19 for a statewide total of 374,085.
"Covid-19 is still a real threat and we're still battling it. I know it's not on the front pages today, but it is still in people and in society," Gov. Cuomo said. "But thanks to the people of New York and the nurses, doctors and essential workers, today we have the lowest number of hospitalizations ever and we have the lowest death toll ever. We are continuously evaluating activities that can be safely reopened, and today we are adding outdoor seating at restaurants to phase two."
2:14 p.m. ET, June 3, 2020
Dutch government to allow some European tourism starting June 15
From Mick Krever in London
People walk on a shopping street in Sluis, Netherlands, near the Belgian-Dutch border on May 31. Nicolas Maeterlinck/Reuters
The Dutch government announced Wednesday that it will allow citizens to travel abroad for vacation to a large number of European countries, and will also allow some foreign tourists to come to the Netherlands. The policy goes into effect on June 15.
The government will continue to advise against nonessential travel to the United Kingdom and Sweden, “because the health risks there are estimated to be higher.” Travel outside Europe will still be “discouraged.”
“The short answer to all questions is that we can indeed go on vacation this summer – but not everywhere, and anyhow, there are uncertainties,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a news conference on Wednesday.
Starting on June 15, the Dutch government will lower its health travel warnings for Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and the Dutch islands of the Caribbean.
France and Spain have yet to make a decision about whether Dutch tourists will be welcomed, the government said, and Denmark has already made clear that it does not want Dutch tourists.
The government said that it would welcome “foreign tourists from countries with similar or lower health risks as in our country.” The government uses a three-level, color-coded scale of yellow, orange, and red, to indicate the health risk of a foreign country.
“It will therefore be a different summer vacation than usual,” Rutte said. “The main advice is to think carefully about what you do, and if you do go on vacation, travel wisely.”
