Coronavirus headlines: President Trump reverses course on power to ‘reopen’ states amid virus

9:30 p.m. update:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he’s open to some states “reopening” before federal social distancing guidelines expire at the end of month. He appears to be backing off his claim of absolute authority to decide when the time is right to act. Hours earlier, he suggested that the bipartisan concerns of governors about his assertion of power would amount to an insurrection. He now says he will leave it to governors to determine the right time and manner to reopen activity in their states. Trump says he will be discussing his plans with governors, probably on Thursday.

8:40 p.m. update:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has revealed an outline for lifting coronavirus restrictions in the nation's most populous state. Newsom he wants to see hospitalization numbers flatten and decline before he begins rolling back stay-at-home orders. But he said things won't look the same when the state reopens. He said waiters at restaurants will likely be wearing masks and gloves. And he said public schools could stagger the times when students arrive to maintain social distancing. California has been under a statewide stay-at-home order since March 19. Since then, more than 2 million Californians have filed for unemployment benefits.

8 p.m. update:

NEW YORK (AP) — The official death toll from the coronavirus soared in New York City after authorities began including people who died without ever being tested. City officials reported 3,778 “probable” deaths, where doctors were certain enough of the cause of death to list it on the death certificate. Combined with virus deaths confirmed by a lab test, that would put the total fatalities in the city over 10,000. The change in the city’s accounting of fatalities came after officials acknowledged that statistics based only on laboratory-confirmed tests were failing to account for many people dying at home before they ever reached a hospital.

6:30 p.m. update:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he is halting U.S. payments to the World Health Organization pending a review of its warnings about the coronavirus and China.

Trump says the outbreak could have been contained at its source and spared lives had the U.N. health agency done a better job investigating reports coming out of China.

The president says the world depends on the World Health Organization to work with countries to make sure accurate information about health threats are shared in a timely manner.

Trump claims the organization failed to carry out its “basic duty” and must be held accountable.

But Trump says the U.S. will continue to engage with the organization in pursuit of what he calls meaningful reforms.

6:25 p.m. update:

CINCINNATI (AP) — The University of Cincinnati has eliminated its men’s soccer program as other colleges weigh cutbacks because of budget problems resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Colleges are grappling with revenue losses from spring sports cancellations, including the NCAA basketball tournament. Eliminating sports is considered a last resort by athletic directors who face difficult choices. Earlier this month, Old Dominion eliminated wrestling as part of its response to the pandemic. And Baylor is putting off construction of its new basketball facility. Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham expects other schools to face similar choices because of the uncertainty over fall sports, including football.

6 p.m. update:

NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to compel federal health officials to post data daily that breaks down COVID-19 cases and deaths by race and ethnicity. The lawmakers say the demographic data is needed to address any disparities in the national response to the coronavirus outbreak, which is taking a disproportionate toll on African Americans and other nonwhite populations. If passed, the legislation introduced Tuesday in the House and Senate would require the Department of Health and Human Services to collect data on race, ethnicity, sex, age and socioeconomic status, among other demographic information on those tested and treated for COVID-19. The information would be posted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

4:40 p.m. update:

NEW YORK (AP) — Between 10% and 20% of U.S. coronavirus cases are health care workers, and they tend to be younger and are hospitalized at lower rates than infected patients overall. So says first national data on how the infection is hitting doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the findings Tuesday. Compared with U.S. cases overall, larger proportions of diagnosed health care workers were women, were white, and were young or middle-aged adults. That’s consistent with the demographics of who works in health care.

4 p.m. update:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic is complicating relief work after storms killed more than 30 people across the South. Baptist volunteers aren’t holding the hands of people whose homes were wrecked by dozens of tornadoes. And the American Red Cross is lining up hotel rooms rather than mass shelters for homeless families to guard against spreading the virus. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says the storms made it harder to stop the spread, and the virus is making it harder to deal with the tornado aftermath. Preliminary assessments show more than two dozen twisters hit the region Sunday and Monday.

1:45 p.m. update:

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Soon after the first coronavirus case hit the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, many of the staffers quit and a doctor just stopped making his rounds. Now that deaths have risen to 45, the lone doctor left to help dozens more infected patients calls the suburban Richmond facility a “virus’s dream” _ poor, chronically understaffed, with most of its residents on Medicaid funding to care for ailments from a lifetime of poverty. Such places are particularly vulnerable in COVID-19 outbreaks at the nation’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities that have so far claimed more than 4,000 lives. 

12:15 P.M.

• (AP) - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday the U.S. does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation's economy

11:15 A.M.

• (AP) - The Senior British Open has been postponed amid the coronavirus outbreak but organizers are still hoping the final major of the year can be played sometime in 2020.

10 A.M.

• The White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing is scheduled for 5 p.m.
• Tour de France will not start on June 27. It has not been rescheduled

8:15 A.M.

• (AP) - Two of the world’s biggest drug companies — Sanofi Pasteur and GSK — are combining forces to hopefully speed development of a vaccine for COVID-19. The pharmaceutical giants say the experimental shot would be based on Sanofi’s flu vaccine and combine a booster from GSK that could help stretch doses of the vaccine further.

7:30 A.M.

• John Hopkins University reports just over 65,000 people in Ohio have been tested for coronavirus
• New York has tested more than 478,000 people

6:30 A.M.

• Spain's virus death toll tops 18,000
• Announcement expected Tuesday from the White House on a council assigned to reopen the economy, according to the Associated Press

5:30 A.M.

• John Hopkins University reports 1.9 million coronavirus cases worldwide
• 2.9 million people in America have been tested for coronavirus
• There are 582,594 cases of coronavirus in America
• 119,000 people have died of the virus around the globe
• 23,649 people have died in America
• Ohio has 6,975 cases
• The Ohio Department of Health reports 274 coronavirus deaths
• FEMA, an agency within the US Department of Homeland Security, awarded contracts to manufacturers in South Korea last week to provide approximately 750,000 tests, according to a FEMA spokesperson and federal records, CNN reports.
• South Korea reported just over 10,000 cases and 222 deaths, which is attributed to aggressive testing

credit: fox8

other tags: donald trump,trump coronavirus,coronavirus,president of the united states,president trump,virus,trump,trump coronavirus white house press conference,news,trump reelection,trump brett kavanaugh,trump impeachment inquiry,warren buffett on market volatility,united states,coronavirus trump live,supreme court,white house,kavanaugh supreme court,trump impeachment,trump kavanaugh,coronavirus white house press briefing,politics