2:29
- ABC News
- April 23, 2020
5-month-old NY girl dies of COVID-19
The novel coronavirus has killed more than 49,700 people in the U.S.
2:29
\"These are among our most vulnerable residents and our most essential workers,\" the governor said. \"We owe our residents and staff our best, and testing will help us best serve them.\"
The state's Department of Health Services describes residents in the development centers as people with \"intensive needs related to their developmental disabilities, and many also have co-occurring mental health, behavioral health and/or medical needs.\"
Murphy also announced in his daily briefing that there were 4,247 new cases reported, putting the total number of confirmed cases in the state at 99,989. Deaths amounted to 5,368, after an additional 307, according to the governor.
He noted that while the curve is flat, people should not expect to be packed together anytime soon.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/nj-murphy-ap-ps-200423_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced his plan to reopen the state with a four-stage solution.
The outline of the plan was detailed online.
In the first stage, which begins on May 1, some nonessential businesses, including retail stores and day cares, may reopen. However, bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons and large venues, like move theaters and sporting venues, will remain closed. Gatherings are still discouraged and should be avoided. Visitors will also have to enter a 14-day quarantine when entering the state.
The second stage allows for gatherings of less than 10 to occur and restaurants can reopen for in-person dining when a distance plan has been approved by the health department. Gyms and hair salons can also reopen, but large venues and bars will have to stay closed. The 14-day quarantine for visitors still applies. The second stage has a target date of May 16, but it will be reevaluated.
The third stage, set to begin on May 30, loosens the gathering restrictions and allows for up to 50 people to gather at once. Bars and large venues remain closed, but both will be required to work on reopening plans for limited occupancy. Nonessential travel can also resume to places where an ongoing transmission is not happening.
The fourth and final stage, with a targeted beginning date of June 13, allows for vulnerable Idahoans to resume public interactions while practicing physical distancing. Gatherings of more than 50 are also allowed to take place, but only with \"appropriate physical distancing and precautionary measures.\" Similarly, bars and large venues can reopen but must operate with limited occupancy and proper distancing. This stage also permits onsite working to take place with physical distancing.
About 13.9% of the 3,000 New Yorkers who were part of randomized antibody tests in the state were infected and developed an antibody, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo announced the data at his daily press briefing, but noted it is preliminary. The data was collected over two days in 19 counties and 40 localities across New York from people who were out in public.
Of the 13.9%, the data showed that more men tested positive, despite making up a smaller portion of the study.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/coronavirus-11-cuomo-ht-jc-200422_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
The data also gave some insight into the regions where infection is spreading: New York City has the highest rate of positive antibody results, with residents accounting for 43% of the study and making up 21.2% of the positive tests. Long Island accounted for 14.4% of the study and made up 16.7% of the positive tests, while Westchester and Rockland Counties accounted for 9.8% of the study and made up 11.7% of the positive tests. The rest of the state accounted for 32.8% of the study and made up 3.6% of the positive tests.
In terms of a racial breakdown, white people were the largest group tested in the study, at 57.1%, but had the lowest positive results at 9.1%. The groups that had the three highest positive tests were multi/none/other (22.8%), Hispanic and Latino (22.5%), and black people (22.1%). Asian people had a positive test percentage of 11.7%.
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Cuomo, extrapolating the data, said it’s likely 2.7 million people in the state have been infected, with a death rate of 0.5%.
He also said the current death toll of 15,302 is not accurate because it does not include people who died at home and those who were never tested for COVID-19.
Cuomo added that more testing needed to be done among the African American and Hispanic community.
More testing and surveys will continue in the state, Cuomo said, with plans to expand the size.
China has pledged to donate $30 million in funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the agency's effort to fight the pandemic, the state-run Xinhua reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang backed the WHO's handling of the pandemic, saying at a briefing that it played an important role in assisting countries in responding to the outbreak and boosting international cooperation.
The pledged donation comes amid criticism from President Donald Trump and his administration of the WHO.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the WHO did not enforce its rules regarding data that China shared. However, the United Nations agency does not have enforcement ability.
Trump also said he would halt all funding to the WHO. Senior U.S. officials said Wednesday that while existing work would continue, \"new funding\" would be paused while a review is conducted.
Xinhua reported that in March, China donated $20 million to the WHO.
The eldest of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's three older brothers, Don Reed, died Tuesday night, three weeks after testing positive for COVID-19. He was 86.
Warren confirmed the news in a statement and tweet.
My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader. https://t.co/b8m0xKzAmM
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 23, 2020
\"I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say 'I love you' one more time—and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close. I'll miss you dearly my brother,\" she tweeted, in part.
Warren, a former Democratic presidential contender, spoke proudly of her brothers on the campaign trail.
Reed was a U.S. Air Force veteran and one of her two Republican brothers. Though he and his siblings only appeared once on the trail with her when she was in Oklahoma, they never spoke to the press. They did appear in a campaign video for their little sister.
Warren had not previously mentioned her brother's diagnosis, but she has been outspoken about the pandemic's grip on the world.
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Despite what appears to be slow progress in New York City, the mayor and health commissioner gave a sobering look at how many New Yorkers most likely have been and will continue to be affected by the pandemic.
Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said that she would not be surprised if \"close to a million New Yorkers\" had been exposed to COVID-19. In the city of about 8.3 million, there have been at least 138,000 confirmed cases, Barbot said Thursday during Mayor Bill de Blasio's daily press briefing.
De Blasio also offered a stark statistic: he expects that an additional one million residents could become food insecure under the pandemic, putting the total number of food insecure New Yorkers at around two million.
He said that by the end of April, the city is expected to have served out about 10 million meals. For May, de Blasio said that number could rise to 15 million.
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De Blasio offered hope to New Yorkers, saying he believes the city will persevere, but also warned that \"we're still very much in this fight.\"
The number of people admitted to New York City hospitals with suspected COVID-19 cases was down again, from 252 to 227, according to the mayor. The number of people in ICUs was also down, but de Blasio noted that 796 people admitted to ICUs was still \"way too many people.\"
He said the city is on track to conduct 20,000 to 30,000 tests per day in May. De Blasio continued to say that testing is the key to reopening the city and keeping New Yorkers safe.
The city of Los Angeles is expanding its criteria for who is eligible to get free testing for the novel coronavirus.
Starting Thursday, all of the city's frontline workers can get tested for COVID-19 whether they have symptoms or not.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who made the announcement at a press briefing Wednesday night, said the frontline workers include health care professionals, first responders, grocery store workers and critical government personnel.
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\"We wish we could open that up to everybody, but I think we all know that we have firefighters and police officers, doctors, nurses, janitors at hospitals, folks that are in grocery stores and pharmacies that are putting themselves out on the line,\" Garcetti said. \"And we want to make sure they are healthy, that they have the peace of mind knowing they’re healthy, and because they interact with so many people, that we can make sure they are not spreading it.\"
The city's public testing sites have the capacity to test 12,200 people per day, according to Garcetti.
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.
The French government wants all shops -- except bars, cafes and restaurants -- to be able to reopen once a nationwide lockdown ends next month.
\"We want all retailers to be able to open on May 11 in the same way out of fairness,\" French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio on Thursday. \"I would only set aside restaurants, bars and cafes that will need special treatment because they are a place of mixing.\"
Le Maire noted that protocols would have to be implemented to protect both workers and customers. It's still unclear whether the reopening would be feasible nationwide or only by region, he said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/International/closed-shop-paris-france-getty-200423_hpEmbed_20200423-062331_3x2_384.jpg\")
French President Emmanuel Macron announced last week that the country's lockdown, which was put in place on March 17 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, will be extended until May 11 and gradually lifted thereon.
France has recorded more than 157,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and over 21,000 deaths, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that her country is \"still at the beginning\" of the coronavirus pandemic and citizens must maintain discipline.
\"We are still far from out of the woods,\" Merkel said while addressing the German parliament Thursday.
More than 150,000 people in Germany have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 5,315 of them have died from the disease so far, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. It's a relatively low death toll compared to other European countries like France and Italy that have similar caseloads but fatalities have soared past 20,000.
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Germany's federal and state governments recently agreed to relax some of the social distancing measures put in place to combat the outbreak, including permitting smaller shops to reopen this week.
\"It is precisely because the figures give rise to hope that I feel obliged to say that this interim result is fragile,\" Merkel said. \"We are on thin ice, the thinnest ice even.\"
Starting next week, the American Red Cross will offer antibody tests for people who suspect they were previously infected with the novel coronavirus and are interested in donating their blood plasma -- a potential game-changer in the treatment for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
\"That completely changes the landscape,\" Dr. Pampee Young, chief medical officer for the American Red Cross, told ABC News in an interview Wednesday.
Antibody tests can indicate whether a person has been exposed to the novel coronavirus and has recovered, developing the antibodies to fight it. And while there is no guarantee that antibodies to this new virus actually provide immunity, doctors are hopeful that patients severely sickened with COVID-19 can benefit from infusions of blood plasma collected from those who have recovered from the disease. The therapy, known as convalescent plasma, is a century-old technique used for treating epidemics.
At the moment, an individual who wishes to donate blood plasma for the experimental convalescent plasma therapy must have documentation of a positive COVID-19 test. The lack of diagnostic tests available has led hospitals and donation centers to say they are in desperate need of donors.
\"Qualifying and getting the right donors into our centers to donate is one of the biggest hurdles in this in this endeavor,\" Young said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/blood-donor-american-red-cross-ohio-ap-200423_hpMain_20200423-044513_4x3t_384.jpg\")
More than 30,000 people have requested to donate on the American Red Cross website, but only 2 to 3% actually qualify and meet the current criteria set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That donor pool could increase dramatically with the implementation of antibody testing at American Red Cross donation centers.
\"All of those (potential) donors who don't have confirmed testing can now be tested,\" Young said. \"We can really cut through that time, which is so important.\"
Young explained that researchers and medical professionals have been in uncharted territory, \"building the plane as you’re flying it.\" But she said they’ve been working around the clock to streamline the process.
\"We really didn't know what we were dealing with at the beginning as we were standing this up,\" she told ABC News. \"Now we’ve really resourced this project.”
ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, Jenna Harrison, Kaylee Hartung, Marilyn Heck, Sasha Pezenik, Cheyenne Haslett, Conor Finnegan, Aaron Katersky, Matthew Fuhrman, Dr. Abdelmalek, Joohee Cho and Fergal Gallagher contributed to this report.
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