June 13 coronavirus news

Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has ended for the day.

El Salvador’s government and business leaders have agreed to reopen the economy starting on June 16, the Ministry of Economy told journalists on Saturday.

The agreement calls for a reopening in 5 phases. The first phase will begin next week and last for 21 days. It will include industries such as textile, María Luisa Hayem, El Salvador's Economy Minister said.

The textile industry accounts for 80,000 jobs according to Hayem. 

Hayem said the textile sector is able to work safely with distancing and sanitary requirements that would provide a low risk of Covid-19 spread.

Following the 21 days, the four other phases of reopening the economy will be carried out in 15 day intervals follow the guidelines established by El Salvador's Ministry of Health.

Dr. Darria Long, emergency room physician and clinical assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, says it is important for people to manage the risks of contracting the virus as US states start to reopen.

She said one way to do that is by being aware of your exposure dose level.

"Up until this point we were in lockdown, we said you're supposed to have zero exposure to the virus. Now we're saying as people are starting to open up the economy, people are going to be exposed to some amount and it's no longer a zero," she told CNN on Saturday.

She outlined four factors people should consider when thinking about their exposure dose level:

"Those four things are like a sliding scale to determine your dose level of any activity," Long said.

Large events with crowds of people, like protests or sporting events, have a high exposure dose level, she said.

"For the most part we've got to be careful and avoid those if possible," she said. 

She said if you do go, you should wear a mask and self-quarantine after.

"The people going should be only the lowest risk level in the spectrum and they should be wearing masks, and after they go to them, they cannot have contact with anybody who is in the higher risk level of the spectrum for two weeks. They need to quarantine themselves," Long said.

CNN once again partnered with Sesame Street for a second town hall about coronavirus to give kids the opportunity to learn more about the pandemic and ask questions.

"The ABCs of Covid-19: A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Kids and Parents" aired on Saturday morning and tackled issues including summer safety, play dates, schooling and how kids and families around the world are creatively coping during these challenging times.

The 60-minute special featured experts and Sesame Street characters -- including Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Rosita and Grover. Together, they answered questions submitted by families.

Here are some of the best moments:

Dr. Gupta played an accordion for a song about caring

After just a little bit of convincing from Elmo, Big Bird and Abby Cadabby, Gupta bought out an accordion to play a big opening song.

Everyone, including Hill, sang along to the tune about how we should care for each other during the pandemic, because "like birds of a feather, we're in this together."

The song went through the alphabets of the word 'care': C is for covering your face with a mask, A is for a park and staying six feet apart, R is for remembering to wash your hands, and E is for everyone's job to help others.

What about play dates with friends?

A lot of kiddos had the same question: can they go back to having play dates?

While its ultimately up to our parents if we can visit our friends or have them sleepover, there is another way for families to stay social with friends.

"Families are picking other families to pair up with, so you kind of become two families that get together and that's the same families you always get together with and that helps you keep safe as well,"  Dr. Amy Acton, the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, said.

It's also very important to make sure both you and your friend aren't feeling sick when seeing each other.

If you're visiting a friend, Gupta added that it's also a good idea to use the bathroom before the play date so you can avoid the risk of sharing too many spaces.

The muppets sang for essential workers

Some of our favorite Sesame Street characters, including Elmo, Grover, and Abby Cadabby, sang a song dedicated to thanking all the heroes in our neighborhoods.

Photos and videos of essential workers, including doctors, construction workers, cashiers, and firefighters, were displayed on the screen while the trio sang the catchy tune.

"Thank you to all the amazing heroes out there, helping and caring for others," Abby Cadabby said.

Read and see more highlights:

RELATED

Best moments from CNN and Sesame Street's second coronavirus town hall for kids and parents

In an interview with Stadium on Saturday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said that he supports the NBA’s restart plan. 

He added: "You know essentially testing everybody, make sure that you start with a baseline of everybody being negative and trying to make sure that no influx into that cohort of individuals." 

Some background: The NBA's Board of Governors voted earlier this month to restart the suspended 2019-2020 season with 22 of the league’s 30 teams taking part. The Board of Player Representatives of the National Basketball Players Association approved further negotiations with the NBA on a 22-team return to play scenario to restart the 2019-20 NBA season.

The new schedule will see training camps open the first half of July with a tentative resumption of the regular season reportedly on July 30.

The league said the season restart is contingent on a deal made to utilize the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, as an isolated campus to hold all games, practices and residency.

"It's something that I think is a sound plan," Dr. Fauci said. “I was very pleased to see that the intent was not reckless at all, they really wanted to make sure that the safety of the players and the people associated with the players was paramount.” 

He said this could possibly be used as a model for other sports depending on how the system works.

The state of New Jersey announced 523 new Covid-19 cases and 103 additional Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, according to a tweet from Gov. Phil Murphy. 

Overall, the state has had a total of at least 166,605 cases.

Approximately 12,589 have died from the virus so far in the state, the tweet says.

Read the tweet:

At least 10 Iowa State University student-athletes, including two football players, have tested positive for Covid-19, the university's athletic department tells CNN Sports in a statement on Saturday. 

None of the student-athletes participated in team activities at the time they were exposed to the virus, according to the school.

The statement said that since the time of the positive tests, all members of the football team who are returning to campus were tested.

"Of the 147 players and staff tested, only two of the returning players have tested positive for Covid-19," the statement said.

The statement also said the athletic department is taking precautions and has "protocols for contact tracing as well as isolation to limit the spread of the disease."

Some context: Earlier this month, Iowa State's athletic department announced that a part-time student worker tested positive for the virus and that four student-athletes were quarantined when they experienced coronavirus-like symptoms after contact with an infected person outside the department.

New York state reported 32 lives lost on June 12 due to the coronavirus Gov. Andrew Cuomo said adding, it’s the “lowest number of deaths that we have seen since this started.”

“We’ve done it, we have tamed the beast, we are now 180 degrees on the other side,” Cuomo said at a news conference today.

 The hospitalization number is 1,734, the lowest since March 20.

 “All the news is very, very good,” he said earlier.

The governor noted that the state went from the worst infection rate in the country, to the lowest rate in the nation calling it a “dramatic” turn around.

The states rate of transmission is .77, the governor said.

Cuomo stressed that the testing data continues to drive reopening.

Cuomo urged residents to continue to follow Covid-19 guidelines as other states have seen an increase in cases.

“New York is exactly the opposite,” he said adding virtually all the other states reopened and saw the number go up, according to his data.

The governor announced that Western New York will move to phase 3 on Tuesday and the Capital region moves to phase 3 Wednesday.

“Discipline matters” he said adding that local governments must continue to enforce compliance, study the data, and trace positives.

WATCH GOV. CUOMO:

President Donald Trump, in an address to the 1,107 graduates of the West Point class of 2020, thanked all of the branches of the military for their help in fighting Covid-19 calling it an “invisible enemy.”

He declared “we will vanquish the virus, we will extinguish this plague.” 

According to a projection released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US could suffer 130,000 coronavirus deaths by July 4, and Covid-19 cases could rise this summer as states reopen, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases said during a conference call with reporters.

"If anything, we must be overprepared for what we might face later this year," said Dr. Jay Butler. "Getting the flu vaccine will be more important than ever, as flu and Covid-19 could be circulating together as we move into the fall and winter months."

More cities and states have reported increasing rates of new coronavirus cases per day as the nationwide total number of cases passed 2 million this week.

WATCH: