Businesses around the world are starting to plan for a restart to operations, as some executives hope the worst is behind us. President Donald Trump on Monday touted the country’s ability to test Americans for Covid-19 as central to reopening, however, health officials continue to warn about the potential for a resurgence in cases if economies are reopened too soon. Starting at noon, we’ll be covering all the news out of our virtual Healthy Returns Summit, which features in-depth interviews with health care CEOs and industry leaders fighting the pandemic.
This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks.
- Global cases: More than 4.1 million
- Global deaths: At least 286,615
- US cases: More than 1.3 million
- US deaths: At least 80,684
The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
9:00 am: Biden advises governors to ‘listen to Dr. Fauci’ as they reopen their states
Joe Biden in an interview on MSNBC.
Source: MSNBC
Biden, the apparent 2020 Democratic nominee, said that if he were president at this time, he would advise governors to consider Dr. Fauci’s warnings in their plans for reopening states.
“We’re in a situation where there’s a great crisis. Dr. Fauci talks about if we open needlessly or open soon, there’s gonna be needless deaths and we have to have things in place. Everybody wants to open,” Biden said in a “Good Morning America” interview.
President Donald Trump has been urging states to reopen businesses to prop up the U.S. economy, which has been ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. —Yelena Dzhanova
8:53 am: Moderna gets FDA’s ‘fast track’ status for experimental coronavirus vaccine
Moderna‘s experimental coronavirus vaccine obtained the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “fast track” designation, which expedites the review of treatments and vaccines meant for serious conditions, Reuters reported.
CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC on Friday that the company anticipates working “very closely” with the U.S. government to determine who will get the first doses if the coronavirus vaccine proves to work. —Melodie Warner, Reuters
8:26 am: Global new cases, by region
8:16 am: Hyatt lays off 1,300 employees
Hyatt Hotels will lay off 1,300 employees around the world as the coronavirus pandemic halts global travel, the company said late Monday according to a report from Reuters.
The hotel chain has also cut pay for board members, senior management and all employees, Reuters reported.
“Due to the historic drop in travel demand and the expected slow pace of recovery, Hyatt has made the extremely difficult decision to implement layoffs and restructure roles across its global corporate functions, beginning June 1, 2020,” the company said in a statement.
Hyatt had 55,000 employees at the end of last year. —Sara Salinas
7:52 am: Burger King parent announces changes coming to reopened dining rooms
A member of staff wearing a face mask and gloves is seen directing cars at the Burger King drive-through in Havant, their first branch to reopen during coronavirus lockdown on May 01, 2020 in Havant, Portsmouth.
Naomi Baker | Getty Images
Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, is reopening dining rooms across the country with plans to maintain socially distancing.
Signs will indicate if a table is open or closed, and customers won’t be able to use self-serve soda machines. Most of the company’s restaurants have also erected plexiglass shields, according to an open letter from CEO Jose Cil.
Nearly 1,000 of the company’s almost 15,000 dining rooms in North American Restaurant Brands locations are fully open, as of Monday. —Amelia Lucas
7:15 am: Cases will rise as states reopen, former FDA chief says
Public health officials and epidemiologists expected to see a steady decline in new U.S. cases by this month, but cases continue to rise in many states, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said. He added that states that have eased restrictions, including Alabama, South Dakota and Texas, have already shown an uptick in cases.
“We’re going to see cases go up now that we’re reopening,” he told “Squawk Box.” “You’ve seen an uptick in cases. That was expected. We know cases are going to go up as we start to resume activity.”
“The bottom line is a lot of states are now reopening activity against a backdrop that doesn’t meet the criteria that the White House set out in terms of when it would be safe to reopen,” he added. —Will Feuer
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina.
7:10 am: WHO sees some positive data in potential treatments
In this photo illustration the World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is seen on a screen of pc and a coronavirus image displayed on a screen of a smartphone in Kiev, Ukraine.
Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | Getty Images
The World Health Organization’s global “Solidarity Trial” has yielded “potentially positive data” on several treatments, the international body said, according to Reuters. Some treatments included in the trial appear to limit the severity or length of Covid-19, spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a news briefing, Reuters reported.
Treatments included in the global study include remdesivir, ritonavir, Interferon beta-1a and hydroxychloroquine.
“We do have some treatments that seem to be in very early studies limiting the severity or the length of the illness, but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus,” Harris said. “We do have potentially positive data coming out, but we need to see more data to be 100% confident that we can say this treatment over that one.” —Will Feuer
7:00 am: German economy contracted by up to 25% during outbreak’s peak, bank says
BERLIN, GERMANY – APRIL 23: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) sits at the Bundestag on April 23, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Germany is still at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and will have to live with it for a long time, the Chancellor said.
Maja Hitij
Economic output probably declined by some 20-25% for several weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak, the KfW state development bank said, according to Reuters. It said that activity likely reached a trough in April, barring a second wave of infections.
Germany went into lockdown in March to contain the outbreak but started to reopen its economy in late April. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced steps to ease more restrictions but also said an “emergency brake” mechanism would be in place to re-impose restrictions if infections pick up again. —Holly Ellyatt
Read coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Ryanair plans to resume 40% of flights in July; Russia reports deadly hospital fire
