South Carolina governor proposes legislature returns late June
From CNN's Dan Shepherd
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday, April 13, in West Columbia, South Carolina. Meg Kinnard/AP
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has proposed the state legislature come back in late June, since coronavirus is expected to peak in mid-May.
By June, coronavirus will be on the downside of its’ peak and businesses should be opening around that time, McMaster said.
“We expect to be back in business by then. That way the government won’t shut down and no one needs to have any concerns about the government shutting down. We will not let the government shut down and it will continue into the next fiscal year,” he said.
McMaster said South Carolinians cannot let their guard down and asked that they continue to follow stay-at-home orders and social distancing protocols.
“It’s too early to celebrate, we’ve got to keep the lid on ourselves. Contain your enthusiasm, because we still have to get out of it, but we will get out of it, and it will be sooner, rather than later," he said.
5:53 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
Trump expected to announce new "contact tracing" initiative
From CNN's Kevin Liptak
As part of his unveiling of new reopening guidelines, President Trump is expected to announce Thursday a new effort to bolster contact tracing in states, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The effort will include the hiring of hundreds of staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to perform tracing in states and helping states pay for new teams to contact people who have tested positive to see who they have interacted with.
The effort is meant to prevent new outbreaks in places as they begin to reopen. The new workers would supplement existing contact tracing efforts in state and local health departments.
Health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have cited contact tracing — along with testing and isolating cases — as essential to reopening efforts.
Earlier, CNN reported that teams from the CDC are being sent to the eight states — New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio — to bolster contact tracing efforts in order to help contain Covid-19.
5:56 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
NYC mayor announces $20 million relief for immigrant workers
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday a new program that will provide emergency monetary relief for up to 20,000 “immigrant workers and their families, who have largely been excluded from federal COVID-19 relief programs.”
New York City is partnering with the Open Society Foundations to establish the $20 million fund, according to a statement from de Blasio’s office.
5:55 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
33 residents at a New Jersey nursing home died from Covid-19
From CNN's Kevin Brunelli
One of the two buildings of Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, in Andover New Jersey, on April 15. Gregg Vigliotti/The New York Times/Redux
Thirty-three people died from coronavirus at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center II, one of New Jersey's largest nursing homes, the state Department of Health told CNN in a statement.
New Jersey previously said there were 19 deaths related to coronavirus at the facility.
"The staff was clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed," Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson, one of the responding officers, told CNN. "The residents were expiring. Why? We're not sure if it's from Covid-19 or from other diseases, but we tried our best to ease the burden."
This post has been updated with the latest figures.
5:23 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
There are more than 650,000 coronavirus cases in US
There are at least 654,301 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 31,628 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.
On Thursday, Johns Hopkins reported 16,190 new cases and 784 reported deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.
5:22 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
New Hampshire governor says schools will continue remote learning for the rest of the year
From CNN's Janine Mack
All public and private schools in New Hampshire will remain closed for the rest of the school year and students will continue remote learning, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said at a news conference on Thursday.
Sununu said the decision was made to prevent the transmission of Covid-19.
"What we know now that we didn't even realize, appreciate to a level that we appreciate now is that the asymptomatic transmission of this virus is very prevalent," he said. "You could have an entire classroom of kids passing coven back and forth without a single symptom, without a sniffle or you wouldn't even know. And for those kids, luckily it doesn't seem to affect the younger population, um, as severely as it does the older population. But we know those kids would likely be taking it home to their parents, to their grandparents, and causing another surgeon at the outbreak."
Sununu called for developing innovative ways to handle graduation and summer programs.
5:18 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
Germany's health minister says country will not be "like it was before" due to coronavirus outbreak
From CNN's Nada Bashir
German Health Minister Jens Spahn speaks to the media during the coronavirus crisis on April 9, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Omer Messinger/Pool/Getty Images
Germany will begin adjusting to a “new normal” as the government lifts some restrictions previously imposed to limit the spread of coronavirus, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Thursday.
He cautioned that the country will not be “like it was before."
“The number of new infections in Germany is down, and this has given us a chance to reopen, step-by-step. And that is important – step-by-step to a new normal. This won’t be like it was before,” Spahn told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“This needs a step-by-step approach, of that I am very much convinced. This is a new virus, this is a new situation and, because of that, we are very cautious,” Spahn said.
Spahn said citizens would need to continue practicing social distancing and wearing masks for "months" to come.
“What we need to find is the right balance. It’s not public health, or the health of people, versus the economy, because they are both very much interlinked…you cannot have a well-equipped health system without a strong economy,” he continued, adding that German citizens will “need to learn to live with the virus” as the world continues to grapple with the pandemic.
5:13 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
Pentagon now says 2,889 service members have coronavirus
From CNN's Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne
The Pentagon building. AFP/Getty Images
The Department of Defense has revised their figures for Covid-19 cases across the department with a slightly lower figure.
As of 5 a.m. ET Thursday, 2,889 service members tested positive for Covid-19, including two US service members who have died from coronavirus. This figure is lower than Tuesday when the figure was higher at 3,022 service members.
Two Pentagon officials said the discrepancy was due to miscounting in the Army but the Army has not yet responded with an on-the-record response.
"We strive to release information as quickly and accurately as possible," the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Department of Defense will continue to refine our reporting to the public.”
There are now at least 4,695 positive cases across the entire Department of Defense.
5:07 p.m. ET, April 16, 2020
FAA outlines how airlines can carry cargo rather than passengers
From CNN's Greg Wallace
A pilot walks by United Airlines planes as they sit parked at gates at San Francisco International Airport on April 12, in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Federal regulators laid out on Thursday how airlines may remove the seats from passenger aircraft and use that space to instead carry cargo.
The Federal Aviation Administration outlined how airlines could use “seat tracks to tie cargo down” but would need to figure out how to properly balance the weight on the aircraft, which they also must do when carrying passengers and luggage.
The airline would also need a plan to prevent fires, because passenger compartments typically do not have the smoke detection and fire suppression systems used for cargo compartments. One workaround, the FAA suggested: Stationing a single crewmember to monitor for potential fires.
The agency called it “an extraordinary situation … for an entire passenger cabin to be loaded with cargo.”
“Passenger cabins are not designed for an all-cargo configuration,” the agency said.
It also pointed out that airlines could also stow cargo in overhead bins and other parts of the aircraft already approved for storage, and possibly strap containers to passenger seats or behind bulkheads.
The bellies of passenger aircraft are already an essential part in the supply chain, and repurposing the fleet of passenger aircraft is one way the distribution network can expand to deliver critical goods like food and medical supplies.
Worldwide cargo capacity has dropped because passenger airlines are flying about a quarter of the flights operated earlier in the year. When US domestic flights do take off, only about 1 in 10 seats are occupied by a paying passenger.
But planes are available. US airlines have grounded 2,250 planes since the outbreak began, according to Airlines for America, an industry group.
Cargo flights can provide some revenue for cash-strapped airlines, which are shutting down the vast majority of their operations, asking employees to take unpaid leave, and taking tens of billions of dollars in a taxpayer bailout.
