April 14 coronavirus news

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said today that she doesn't believe the city's biggest events — French Quarter Festival, JazzFest and Essence Festival — should be held in 2020, but instead push to 2021.

All three events had been postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cantrell said she's been in touch with event organizers but did not give any additional details on those conversations. 

As of mid-March, the French Quarter Festival and JazzFest posted on their social media that the events were postponed to the fall of 2020. Nothing new has been updated since then.

Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to postpone the trial of associates of Rudy Giuliani by at least four months until February due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the criminal justice system.

In a letter to Judge Paul Oetken, prosecutors also said they informed lawyers for Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and two other men charged in a campaign finance scheme that their plans to bring additional charges against the men have also been impacted. 

The “timeline for seeking a superseding indictment has been pushed back due to issues involving the availability of witnesses and grand jurors given the pandemic-related travel and social-distancing restrictions,” prosecutors wrote. 

Parnas and Fruman had been schedule to go to trial on October 5, about one month before the presidential election. The men, who were central players in Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joseph and Hunter Biden’s activities in the Ukraine, have pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

The coronavirus pandemic has ground the criminal justice system to a halt across the country with grand juries disrupted and criminal and civil trials postponed. In the Southern District of New York trials are postponed until at least June 1.  

Prosecutors didn’t object to a request by lawyers for the defendants who sought to postpone the trial because of their difficulty of meeting with their clients, who are based in Florida and California, and prepare for trial.

If the trial is delayed, it would remove the potential for information about Giuliani’s associates spilling into the public just weeks ahead of the presidential election.

Other high profile trials have also been postponed. Michael Avenatti, the celebrity attorney, was set to go to trial this month on charges he stole more than $300,000 from his former client Stormy Daniels. A federal judge set a new trial date for August. 

Paul Manafort's lawyers have also asked for the former Trump campaign chairman to be moved out of prison due to potential health risks from the coronavirus.

There are at least 594,207 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 25,163 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

On Tuesday, Johns Hopkins has reported 11,600 new cases and 1,535 reported deaths. 

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said that he and a number of his gubernatorial counterparts think President Trump is off-base with his desire to reopen the nation’s economy by May 1.

Lamont instead reiterated the May 20 date he offered on CNN's New Day Tuesday morning as more of a realistic timeframe when he could make an informed decision about when to reopen the state.

“I said we're not gonna be reopening schools before May 20, but by May 20 we're gonna have a lot of our testing in place by then, we'll have a lot more of the PPE, the protective gear,” Lamont said. “And that will give us a lot stronger indication about who and when and how people can start getting to work.”

California’s health director told CNN that the state is not completely ready to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is the right time to start talking to Californians about what it might look like as we start loosening restrictions," she added.

Angell noted that there are a number of quick indicators that will help leaders make decisions to proceed and that it’s time to start modifying orders in a way that's safe for Californians.

"We're not sure this is the end of it, but it's a good moment to take stock and look at what it might look like as we get back to normal," Angell said.

The new normal will be about creating space for people to safely leave their home but keeping those with greater risk at home, she said.

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A drug that’s been touted by President Trump as a “game changer” didn’t help hospitalized patients with coronavirus, and was associated with heart complications, according to a new study. 

“This provides evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not apparently treat patients with Covid-19,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Even worse, there were side effects caused by the drug – heart toxicities that required it be discontinued.”

The study was published Tuesday on a pre-print server and was not peer reviewed.

In the study, among the 84 patients who took hydroxychloroquine, 20.2% were admitted to the ICU or died within seven days of inclusion. Among the 97 patients who did not take the drug, 22.1% went to the ICU or died. 

The difference was determined to not be statistically significant.

Looking just at deaths, 2.8% of the patients who took hydroxychloroquine died, and 4.6% of the patients who did not take it died. That difference was also found to not be statistically significant.

An official at San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management told CNN 102 people at MSC South shelter have coronavirus.

Ninety-two of the cases are among homeless individuals and 10 are among staff members.

This is an increase of 11 more positive cases from the 91 that were reported at the shelter Monday.

MSC South shelter can typically accommodate as many as 340 people per night, an official at the department said. 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced Tuesday schools will remain closed through the end of the school year.

"I know how hard teachers, students, all staff, and parents have been working during this dangerous time," he said at a news conference. "You have my deep respect and sincere admiration. It has been so encouraging to see the efforts of our education community to protect the people of Mississippi while ensuring learning takes place."

Major US airlines have accepted the government’s terms to receive billions of aid and keep hundreds of thousands of employees on the payrolls, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.  

American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines are among those who have accepted the offer, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. 

It did not specify the exact terms of the agreement, but in recent days, the carriers and government have been discussing terms that include 30% of the aid coming as low-cost loans.  

Mnuchin said the department “is also working to review and approve applications for smaller passenger air carriers as quickly as possible,” and would take up discussions with cargo carriers “very soon.”  

The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus aid package President Trump signed last month includes more than $58 billion to prop up the aviation industry — half of it to help airlines fund employee payroll costs through September.   

In exchange for accepting the funds, airlines must agree to prohibitions on stock buybacks and layoffs, and limits on executive compensation. Airlines must also provide at least a minimum level of service — as few as one flight weekly — to the destinations currently served.   

The Transportation Department on Tuesday separately announced how it would allocate around $10 billion in aid to airports around the nation.