Friday, May 1 coronavirus updates
Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Friday, May 1. Happy May! Here are coronavirus and top news briefs.
In the U.S., there are over 64,000 deaths from COVID-19. Over a million has been infected and 160,000 people have recovered. USA Today reported that 16,000 of the deaths are associated with residents and staff from nursing homes.
Here is a map from the New York Times that shows which states are shut down or restricted (yellow), which states have a partial reopening (dark green), and which states will reopen soon (light green). We’re moving fast towards reopening America, but there are many areas that are still shut down. Some people have compared it to “smoking and nonsmoking sections” formerly used in restaurants — saying it won’t work if some states stay shut while others are opened up. A lot of people are looking at the number of cases to see if we’ll continue in a “flat” trajectory in infections or if it will spike up again.
Los Angeles now provides free testing to anyone, regardless of symptoms. The Times said almost 10,000 people were tested. L.A. is the largest city to offer testing for anyone. California officials said the testing is needed before the economy can be reopened in the next few weeks.
CBS News reported that almost 4 million homeowners are not paying their mortgage due to financial hardships. The homeowners have asked for forbearance — to forgive a delay in paying their debts.
President Trump said yesterday that he has seen evidence that the coronavirus came from an advanced biological lab in Wuhan, China, but said he was not allowed to share what was the evidence. Scientists said the virus came from animals, more likely from a market where live animals were being sold for meat. U.S. intelligence agencies said they believe the virus was not man-made but that they would continue to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In Austin, Texas, a park ranger at a waterfront park was pushed into a lake after he told park-goers to keep six feet away from each other. It was caught on video and posted on Reddit. The suspect, 25-year-old Brandon Hicks, was arrested and charged with attempted assault on a public servant.
Facebook has added a new “care” reaction, which is this emoji hugging a heart. It’s their seventh reaction and the newest one, and clearly it aligns with the COVID-19 pandemic. For Facebook Messengers, they’ve added a pulsing purple heart that you can use to react to others’ messages.
Joe Biden today denied the allegation that he sexually assaulted a former staffer in 1993 when he was a Senator. He said “this never happened.” The allegation was made by Tara Reade, who is now 56 years old. Biden also asked for records of his time as a Senator, which are in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to be made available to the media. He said other records at the University of Delaware did not have any personnel documents.
Canada announced a ban on the use and trade of “military-grade, assault weapons” in the country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the ban of over 1,500 specific weapons. You can’t buy, sell, transport, import, or use the firearms. There is a two-year amnesty period for current owners and there may be a proposal in Parliament that allows the government compensate gun owners. Canada recently had their worst mass shooting in Nova Scotia when a man killed 22 people.
Today would have been Gianna Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s daughter,’s 14th birthday. She died with Kobe and seven others in a helicopter crash in January. Her mother Vanessa posted an image of her with the caption,”You are a part of MY SOUL forever…. I miss you so much everyday.”
That’s all the top stories for today. Check out our Deaf News video. Have a safe and healthy weekend and stay with the light!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-map-coronavirus.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/coronavirus-update-news-2020-05-01/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52496098
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/05/01/coronavirus-nursing-homes-more-states-pressured-name-facilities/3062537001/
https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/trump-claims-he-has-seen-evidence-linking-coronavirus-to-chinese-lab/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/entertainment/gigi-bryant-vanessa-birthday/index.html