US records more than 500,000 coronavirus cases: Johns Hopkins

The US has recorded more than 500,000 coronavirus cases on Saturday (April 11, 2020), according to a Johns Hopkins tally.

The US also marked a record 2,108 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, according to the same tally.

The death toll in the United States has surpassed that of Spain, with more than 18,400 fatalities through Friday afternoon. Only Italy has reported more deaths.

Meanwhile, the global death toll of the novel coronavirus surged past 100,000 on Friday.

Trump says he’s ‘looking at a date’ to begin easing restrictions.

As new federal projections warned of a spike in coronavirus infections if shelter-in-place orders were lifted after only 30 days, President Trump said on Friday that the question of when to relax federal social distancing guidelines was “the biggest decision I’ll ever make.”

Stays-at-home orders

As a practical matter, the stay-at-home orders that have kept much of the nation hunkered down have been made by governors and mayors. But many were moved to act in part by the federal guidelines meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Trump, who has often sounded impatient for the nation — and particularly its economy — to reopen, said that he would listen to the advice of the medical experts before acting. But he also said that he would convene a new task force with business leaders on it next week to think about when to act.

At a news briefing at the White House on Friday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he assumed that any lifting of restrictions would cause an increase in cases, heightening the need to be able to identity, isolate and trace them.

Seventy test positive at a San Francisco homeless shelter.

Seventy people at San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter have tested positive for the coronavirus, Mayor London Breed said on Friday.

The outbreak, which included two staff members, is the largest reported at a single shelter in the United States. It reinforces a major fear that homeless people, many of whom have pre-existing respiratory illnesses, are especially vulnerable to the pandemic.

Advocates in San Francisco, where there are more than 8,000 homeless people, had expressed concern in recent weeks that the city had not moved quickly enough to use empty hotel rooms to thin out the shelter system.

California has procured more than 8,000 hotel rooms for homeless people and those who need to quarantine themselves, far short of the more than 100,000 people in the state who sleep on the streets.

Italy extends coronavirus lockdown until May 3 – Prime Minister

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday the government was extending the nationwide lockdown to contain the coronavirus until May 3, though a few types of shops would be allowed to re-open from April 14.

“This is a difficult but necessary decision for which I take all political responsibility,” Conte told a news conference.

The draconian curbs on movement and the shutdown imposed on most shops and businesses across Italy were imposed on March 9, and were scheduled to expire on Monday.

Among a few exceptions to the lockdown extension, Conte said bookshops, stationers and shops selling children’s clothes could reopen from April 14.

In other remarks, he said the deal reached on Thursday among euro zone finance ministers on an economic package to help the bloc’s countries is “still insufficient”, adding Italy would continue to battle for the issuance of common debt through euro bonds.