The Latest: Trump: administration has 'met the moment'
The Latest on the coronavirus pandemic. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— Trump insists his administration has “met the moment” and “prevailed” on coronavirus testing.
— AP source: MLB owners OK plan that could lead to July start.
— Western governors ask Congress for $1 trillion in aid to states.
— White House requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or face covering.
— Senior administration officials said the U.S. federal government will begin distributing $11 billion from the latest relief bill to boost state testing efforts.
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is insisting his administration has “met the moment” and “prevailed” on coronavirus testing.
The president addressed a Rose Garden audience filled with mask-wearing administration officials on Monday after two known cases of COVID-19 were reported among staffers in one of the most-protected complexes in America.
Trump said anew that everyone who wants a test can get one, though officials later clarified that to everyone who “needs” a test.
Trump commented even as the White House itself became a potent symbol of the risk facing Americans everywhere by belatedly ordering everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask.
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NEW YORK — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.
Spring training could start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.
MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players’ association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball. Players withstood a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 to fight off such a plan.
— By Ronald Blum
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LAS VEGAS — Governors and legislative leaders from five western states that are coordinating their response to the coronavirus outbreak are asking Congress to send $1 trillion to state and local governments across the U.S. in the next federal aid package.
The elected officials from California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington sent the letter Monday to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate. They said they will have to make deep budget cuts unless states receive more aid. The minority leader in the California Assembly was the lone Republican to sign the letter.
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Democrats are making new moves toward a virtual presidential nominating convention this August.
Party officials are preparing to grant convention organizers in Milwaukee the authority to design a convention that won’t require delegates to attend in person.
The influential Rules & Bylaws panel will start the process Tuesday with a resolution that grants “maximum flexibility” to the convention organizing committee to set up a gathering that “guarantees every delegate can accomplish their official business without putting their own health at risk.”
The resolution underscores how much the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the 2020 presidential election and every aspect of American life.
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WASHINGTON — The White House is requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or face covering after coronavirus scares near President Donald Trump.
A memo sent to all staff outlined the new directive Monday after two staffers last week tested positive for COVID-19.
The memo says: “We are requiring everyone who enters the West Wing to wear a mask or facial covering.”
Staff will be allowed to remove their face coverings if they sit at least six feet apart from their colleagues.
The directive is meant to protect the president, who has refrained from wearing a mask in public and in private.
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WASHINGTON — Senior administration officials said the federal government will begin distributing $11 billion from the latest relief bill to boost state testing efforts.
The funds will be allocated based on states’ population size and how heavily they have been impacted by the outbreak.
For weeks the White House has resisted calls to set specific testing goals or metrics. And President Trump has reiterated that governors are responsible for testing.
Administration officials said the federal government is providing states with enough supplies to meet their testing goals.
At a minimum, the White House wants all states testing at least 2% of their populations, though the administration has declined to elaborate on how that number was reached.
The U.S. is still struggling to increase testing to the levels that most public health experts say are essential to safely reopen offices, schools, churches, restaurants and other parts of the economy.
Last week, Harvard researchers projected that the nation must conduct 900,000 daily tests by May 15 to be able to track new cases and contain new flare ups. That’s more than three times the country’s current daily testing rate of about 275,000.
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Organ transplants have plummeted as COVID-19 swept through communities. Surgeons are wary of endangering living donors and too often unable to retrieve possibly usable organs from the dead.
International researchers reported Monday transplants from deceased donors dropped by about half in the U.S. and 90% in France from late February to early April.
Separate U.S. data shows living donations had a similarly staggering decline. Transplants have begun inching back up again in recent weeks as U.S. hospitals determine how to get desperately needed new organs to the thousands waiting for them despite the virus threat.
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FREMONT, Calif. — Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter on Monday that the company has restarted its California factory in violation of local government orders.
In the afternoon tweet, Musk said he would be on the assembly line and asked that he be arrested if authorities take anyone into custody.
The plant in Fremont employs 10,000 workers and had been closed since March 23 due to orders to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Early Monday, the parking lot was nearly full at the massive plant and semis were driving off loaded with vehicles that may have been produced before the shutdown.
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DENVER — Health officials closed a Colorado restaurant that opened for full service on Mother’s Day in defiance of state rules banning in-person dining.
A video showed a packed house and no social distancing at C&C Breakfast and Korean Kitchen.
One of the owners told KCNC-TV he wanted to stand up for small businesses and get the attention of lawmakers. Gov. Jared Polis said Monday the restaurant “is causing an immediate health hazard,” and its business license will be suspended until the restaurant is no longer a threat.
Its license was suspended indefinitely. Health officials say the license could be revoked if the restaurant owners refuse to remain closed.
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CHICAGO — Twitter announced it will warn users with a label when a tweet contains disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus.
The company will take a case-by-case approach to how it decides which tweets are labeled, company leaders said.
Some tweets will run with a label underneath that directs users to links with additional information about COVID-19.
Other tweets will be covered entirely by alerts that tell users the information is in “conflict with guidance from public health experts.”
The new rule is just the latest in a string of stricter policies that tech companies are rolling out to confront virus misinformation on their sites.
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UNITED NATIONS — The World Health Organization chief says there are around seven or eight “top” candidates for a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus.
WHOF Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a U.N. Economic and Social Council video briefing on Monday that “we have more than a hundred candidates, and we are focusing on the few candidates we have which can bring probably better results and accelerating those candidates with better potential.”
He did not identify the top candidates for a vaccine against COVID-19.
Tedros said the original thinking two months ago was that it may take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine, but an accelerated effort is under way, helped by 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) pledged a week ago by world leaders, organizations and banks for research, treatment and testing.
He said the $8 billion will not be enough, and additional funds will be needed to speed up the development of a vaccine, but more importantly to produce enough “to make sure that this vaccine reaches everyone — (and) there’s no one left behind.”
Tedros stressed that COVID-19 is “very contagious and it’s a killer,” with more than 4 million cases now reported to WHO and almost 275,000 lives lost.
While new cases are declining in Western Europe, they are increasing in Eastern Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and other regions, he said.
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BOSTON — The Massachusetts death toll from COVID-19 surged past 5,000 on Monday even as the state began mapping out plans to gradually restart the state’s economy.
Massachusetts reported another 129 confirmed COVID-19-related deaths, bringing to 5,108 the total number of deaths recorded in the state since the pandemic’s start.
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker began outlining a four-phase plan Monday to reopen Massachusetts businesses that have been closed since late March as part of the state’s effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The reopening is set to begin May 18 and will require businesses to adopt a series of protocols to maintain the health of workers and customers.
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HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 3,000 even as state officials announced plans to open day camps this summer.
Officials reported 41 additional deaths, bringing the total to 3,008.
“Shame on us for underestimating, perhaps, what could happen,” Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said.
He noted the U.S. surgeon general told him last month that the outbreak would likely be similar to a bad flu season of 100 deaths.
But Lamont also noted that hospitalizations from the virus continue to trend downward. Three children in the Yale Health system are being monitored for an inflammatory syndrome that might be linked to the virus, Lamont said.
The state also said summer camps could open June 29, with tight restrictions including a limit on the number of campers and temperature checks.
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NEW YORK — New York City’s death toll from the coronavirus may be thousands of fatalities worse than the official tally kept by the city and state, according to an analysis released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Between mid-March and early May, about 24,000 more people died in the city than researchers would ordinarily expect, based on the season, the report said.
That’s about 5,300 more deaths than had been previously attributed to the coronavirus during that time period.
These so-called “excess deaths” could have been caused by byproducts of pandemic, the report found, including “the demand on hospitals and health care providers and public fear related to COVID-19” prompting delays in people seeking or receiving lifesaving care.
The report, based on data compiled by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, underscored the challenges authorities face in assessing — and quantifying — the human toll of the crisis.
Through Sunday, New York City had recorded nearly 14,800 deaths confirmed by a lab test and another nearly 5,200 probable deaths where no test was available, but doctors are sure enough to list the virus on the death certificate.
In its analysis, the report released Monday said the 5,293 excess deaths were on top of both confirmed and probable fatalities.
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SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has directed state agencies to prepare for a 17% budget cut because of cratering tax revenues because of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Whether the state will need to implement this level of cuts will be dependent on several factors, most importantly the need for additional federal funding to support state services, including our K-12 public school system,” Brown said in a statement Monday.
The next revenue forecast for Oregon is May 20 and the Democratic governor had previously said she was “gravely concerned” about the state’s ability to deliver basic services in the coming months.
Oregon’s economy was booming before the arrival of COVID-19, with unemployment rates at record lows and a $1.5 billion tax surplus. The general fund budget for 2019-2021 is currently about $25 billion.
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BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. John Bel Edwards is loosening restrictions this upcoming weekend on restaurants, salons and gyms.
The Democratic governor announced that he’s moving the state away from a “stay-at-home” position he enacted in late March.
The new regulations take effect Friday and are largely in line with the first phase of reopening as envisioned under the White House guidelines provided to states.
Businesses newly allowed to open will be limited to one-quarter of their previous capacity, and employees working around customers will have to wear masks.
Restaurants will be able to reopen inside seating and table service, but at the 25% capacity level. Tattoo parlors, spas, amusement parks and children’s museums will remain closed.
The governor said he decided to lessen the constraints because Louisiana, one of the nation’s early hot spots for the coronavirus, is seeing consistent declines in new virus cases and hospitalization rates for COVID-19 disease patients.
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WASHINGTON — The White House is recommending that all nursing home residents and staff be tested for the new coronavirus in the next two weeks.
Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House coronavirus task force, told governors on a video conference call Monday that it’s the federal government’s strong recommendation that such testing be done.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, told governors to focus over the next two weeks on testing all 1 million nursing home residents. She says the White House will help states that need it.
Nursing homes and the elderly have been shown to be especially susceptible to the virus.
The Associated Press obtained a recording of the meeting.
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will follow a “modified quarantine” plan after meeting with Vice President Mike Pence at a time when one of his aides tested positive for coronavirus.
Reynolds said that Pence’s aide was at the White House when she visited last Wednesday to brief Pence and President Donald Trump on Iowa’s response to the pandemic.
Reynolds met again with Pence on Friday when he visited Iowa to meet with religious leaders and food executives. Although Pence had just learned of his aide’s infection, he didn’t wear a mask during his visit and neither did the governor or other Iowa politicians.
Reynolds said that she had no contact with Pence’s aide when in Washington but that “out of an abundance of caution” she will take steps to isolate herself. Reynolds said that she tested negative Monday for coronavirus and is feeling healthy.
Reynolds said that her temperature will be taken before she enters the State Emergency Operations Center in Johnston, where she’s been working. She said that many of her aides will work from home. She said she’ll have only “minimal interactions” with others and will wear a mask and practice social distancing when she does.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf blasted local elected officials who plan to reopen in defiance of his shutdown orders, threatening Monday to yank coronavirus aid and declaring they are “choosing to desert in the face of the enemy.”
The normally mild-mannered Democrat fired back after several counties declared themselves in open rebellion against his restrictions on businesses and movement, saying local officials who pronounce themselves open for business will pay a steep price.
“To those politicians who decide to cave into this coronavirus, they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act,” said Wolf, threatening to withhold state and federal funding to counties “that put us all at risk by operating illegally.”
Wolf also warned businesses that choose to “follow the whims of local politicians and ignore the law” by reopening in defiance of the shutdown that they risk businesses licenses, certificates of occupancy and other required governmental approvals to operate.
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WASHINGTON — The chief of the National Guard Bureau says he tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, his second consecutive negative result after testing positive on Saturday during screening before a Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump.
Gen. Joseph Lengyel said in a brief statement that he was tested Monday at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Washington.
He was one of two members of the Joint Chiefs who missed the Trump meeting because of coronavirus concerns.
The other was Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations. Gilday went into quarantine after a family member tested positive for the coronavirus. Gilday tested negative.
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Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.