Coronavirus live updates: Michigan lifts stay-at-home order, Missouri casinos reopen

FAN Editor

People across the U.S. gathered in mass protests against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, raising concerns of further virus spread through the demonstrations. More than 1.7 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus and over 104,000 have died due to Covid-19. Black Americans have made up a disproportionate share of the deaths as underlying conditions, income inequality and disparity in access to health care have exacerbated the outbreak in the community.

Some state and city officials have urged protesters to seek Covid-19 testing and to limit movements in the weeks following the demonstrations in an effort to prevent infections. 

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

  • Global cases: More than 6.19 million
  • Global deaths: At least 372,479
  • U.S. cases: More than 1.79 million
  • U.S. deaths: At least 104,383

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Congressional Budget Office says coronavirus will cost the economy nearly $8 trillion

4:29 p.m. ET — The Congressional Budget Office estimated the coronavirus outbreak likely will sap about $7.9 trillion of economic activity over the next decade-plus, even with all of the rescue funding being poured in to offset the pandemic’s impact.

Through fiscal 2030, the virus will reduce real economic output — nominal GDP adjusted for inflation — by 3% from initial economic estimates in January before the pandemic hit, the CBO said.

“Business closures and social distancing measures are expected to curtail consumer spending, while the recent drop in energy prices is projected to severely reduce U.S. investment in the energy sector,” CBO Director Phillip L. Swagel said in a written response to an inquiry from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York). “Recent legislation will, in CBO’s assessment, partially mitigate the deterioration in economic conditions.”

Nominal GDP is expected to be $15.7 trillion, or 5.3%, less than originally forecast due to the coronavirus, CNBC’s Jeff Cox reported. —Melodie Warner

U.K. could be at risk of second wave after reopening too quickly, scientist says

3:50 p.m. ET — A top scientist has warned that the U.K. is moving too quickly in lifting coronavirus restrictions. David King, who previously served as the U.K. government’s chief scientific advisor, said policymakers were putting the country at risk of suffering a second wave of the virus, CNBC’s Chloe Taylor reports.

Additional limitations were lifted and people in England can now meet outside in groups of six while social distancing and primary schools can reopen. —Hannah Miller

Michigan lifts stay-at-home order

The dining area at American Coney Island in Detroit Michigan sits empty due to state restrictions that were put in place to curb the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 24, 2020.

Seth Herald | AFP | Getty Images

3:45 p.m. ET — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted the state’s stay-at-home order and will allow restaurants to reopen on-site dining, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Capacity limits will be immediately lifted on outdoor gatherings and retailers can open to customers without an appointment on Thursday. Retailers can resume dine-in service on June 8 and day camps and pools can open on that day as well under social-distancing guidelines. Gyms, hair salons, theaters and amusement parks remain closed.

Michigan had been under a stay-at-home order for almost 10 weeks and has had 57,537 confirmed cases of the virus and 5,516 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. —Hannah Miller

Missouri casinos reopen in spite of protests

3:26 p.m. ET — Missouri’s governor and gaming regulators allowed casinos to reopen as scheduled, despite protests and civil unrest over the weekend.

Eldorado Resorts will reopen five properties in Missouri and Iowa, including Lumiere Place near the iconic St. Louis arch. Jeffries gaming analyst Jeffrey Katz anticipates fear over violence could keep away some visitors, in some places.

SunTrust gaming analyst Barry Jonas said guests who drive to casinos, rather than fly to their destinations, are typically more risk-tolerant than other kinds of leisure travelers, who aren’t traveling anyway because of coronavirus.

Eldorado President and COO Anthony Carano said in a corporate release, “We have been working very hard over the last two months to prepare for these reopenings and we look forward to providing the outstanding service and hospitality experiences our casinos in Missouri and Iowa are known for in a safe manner.”

Casinos in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada are scheduled to reopen Thursday. But this weekend, the Reno mayor declared a citywide emergency, the governor ordered up the National Guard, and police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters on the Las Vegas Strip. —Contessa Brewer

WHO says ‘if we let the virus go, it will transmit’

Medical personnel move a deceased patient to a refrigerated truck serving as make shift morgues at Brooklyn Hospital Center on April 09, 2020 in New York City.

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

2:45 p.m. ET — World Health Organization officials advised caution about reports that the coronavirus is “losing potency. They said “this is still a killer virus” and thousands of people are still dying daily.

“If we let the virus go, it will transmit. If we let the virus go, it will infect people and it will cause severe illness in about 20% of people,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit.

Last week, WHO officials warned that countries with declining coronavirus infections could still face an “immediate second peak” if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak. —Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Protests are ‘counterproductive’ to NYC’s coronavirus battle, Gov. Cuomo says

Protesters gather at Barclays Center to protest the recent killing of George Floyd on May 29, 2020 in Brooklyn in New York City.

Kevin Mazur | Getty Images

2:26 p.m. ET — The George Floyd protests that rocked New York City over the weekend threaten to set back the city’s efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

“We spent all this time closed down, locked down, masked, socially distanced and then you turn on the TV and you see these mass gatherings that could potentially be infecting hundreds and hundreds of people after everything that we have done,” he said.

Cuomo announced last week that he expected New York City to meet the state requirements for shifting into phase one of the state’s reopening plan on June 8. —Will Feuer

Tips for talking to your employer about making a permanent change to working from home

2:05 p.m. ET — Enjoying working from home? You’re not alone.

Prior to the pandemic, just 14% of employees in the U.S. worked from home five days a week. Now, as offices around the country remain shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus, that share has swelled to more than 60%. And 3 in 5 workers say they don’t want to return to the old days, according to a Gallup survey. 

CNBC spoke to negotiation experts on how to best make the case to your boss that you can be as productive at home.

The first thing you need to do is to find out if your employer has taken a stance on working from home, said Deborah Kolb, author of Negotiating at Work: Turn Small Wins Into Big Gains. —Annie Nova

Pandemic sparks downward shift in tech deals

WHO wants to continue working with U.S.

12:42 p.m. ET — The World Health Organization hopes to continue its relationship with the U.S. despite President Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to cut ties with the agency, CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. reports. 

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has “long benefited” from the agency’s collaboration with the U.S., and that the organization wishes the partnership would continue

Trump said Friday that the WHO “failed to make the requested greatly needed reform” and criticized its response to the pandemic. —Hannah Miller

Gilead says remdesivir helped patients suffering from ‘moderate’ form of Covid-19

Empty vials of investigational coronavirus disease (Covid-19) treatment drug remdesivir are washed at a Gilead Sciences facility in La Verne, California, U.S. March 18, 2020.

Gilead Sciences Inc | Reuters

Lowe’s launches new virtual home repair tool

12:09 p.m. ET — Think of it as telemedicine, but for a leaky pipe or broken toilet.

Lowe’s has launched a new video tool to make it easier for plumbers, electricians and other home professionals to virtually visit customers’ homes during the pandemic. It’s offering the video service for free for any professionals who join its new loyalty program.

With the video service, a home professional can consult with a customer and help troubleshoot a problem. The pro can use an on-screen laser pointer or a drawing tool to guide customers or help them make a repair – or capture a serial number and identify parts to order if an in-person visit is needed. —Melissa Repko

Why activists are pushing for rent forgiveness during the pandemic

A house for rent in California.

Getty Images

11:20 a.m. ET — With over 40 million Americans out of work due to coronavirus pandemic, calls to #CancelRent have proliferated on social media and at demonstrations across the country. Some politicians, including Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are joining progressive activists and calling for rent cancellation for those unable to pay during the pandemic.

“There should be rent forgiveness and there should be mortgage forgiveness now in the middle of this crisis,” Biden said earlier in the month on the Snapchat show “Good Luck America.” “Not paid later — forgiveness. It’s critically important to people who are in the lower-income strata.”

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has hit renters especially hard, Tara Raghuveer, director of KC Tenants, a tenants rights group in Kansas City, tells CNBC Make It. Relative to homeowners, tenants typically have lower incomes and savings and less job stability, according to the Urban Institute, making them “more vulnerable than homeowners during this unstable time.”

As eviction moratoriums put in place at the beginning of the pandemic begin to lift, Raghuveer says the current situation could play out like 2008 — with landlords losing their properties and tenants facing eviction across the country — if broader relief does not come. “If rental assistance comes in three months, it’s too late,” says Raghuveer. “You’ll see thousands of families displaced with nowhere to go.” —Alicia Adamczyk

Budget airline Frontier starts taking travelers’ temperatures 

10:36 a.m. ET — Frontier Airlines became the first major U.S. airline to start checking passengers’ temperatures before they board, an attempt at calming concerns about the spread of Covid-19 in air travel.

The ultra-low-cost airline plans to use thermometer guns on travelers. If passengers have a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, they will be allowed to rest before getting a second check. If they still have 100.4F reading or higher they will be told “they will not be flying that day for the health and safety of others,” the airline said. “Frontier will work with that customer to rebook travel on a later date or otherwise accommodate the traveler’s preferences with respect to their reservation.”

Major U.S. carriers have said that it should be the government’s responsibility to check temperatures while labor unions have pushed for federal mandates, not just guidelines. The Department of Homeland Security, of which the Transportation Security Administration is a part, has said it’s considering traveler temperature checks but hasn’t yet provided a firm timeline. —Leslie Josephs

Officials warn protests could help virus spread

10:05 a.m. ET — As protests erupt across the U.S., officials are sounding the alarm that such mass gatherings could allow the coronavirus spread throughout the population.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of challenges coming out of the events of the past week,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in an interview on “Squawk Box” on Monday. “One of them’s going to be that probably chains of transmission will have gotten lit by large gatherings. I don’t think there’s really a question about that.”

States have eased restrictions meant to curb the spread of the virus in recent weeks, particularly as some studies indicate the virus doesn’t spread as easily outdoors. However, the protests present a significantly larger risk to increasing spread of the virus, Gottlieb said.

“This isn’t a day at the beach or going out to a picnic where you’re outside and you might be in larger groups but there’s some social distancing and you’re able to take some precautions,” he said. “In these kinds of gatherings, in these kinds of crowds, many of which lost control of the crowds, you’re not going to be able to take those kinds of precautions.” —Will Feuer

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a member of the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina.

Southwest offers employees voluntary separation packages in bid to avoid layoffs

Southwest airline planes sit on the tarmac at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on February 20, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

9:47 a.m. ET — Southwest Airlines is the latest carrier to offer employees voluntary separation and partially paid leaves, an effort to reduce headcount and to avoid layoffs or furloughs.

While airlines are suffering from a plunge in demand because of the pandemic, they are prohibited from laying off or cutting the pay rates of their employees through Sept. 30 under the conditions of $25 billion in federal coronavirus relief dedicated to supporting payroll.

Southwest told employees they can take a minimum of six months off and receive partial pay, and all benefits and travel privileges. Another option is a voluntary separation that includes travel privileges for four years and a severance package.

“The voluntary programs are the most generous packages ever offered in Southwest’s history and will assist with matching staffing levels to the current decline in demand due to COVID-19,” the airline said. The low-cost airline, which employed just over 60,000 people as of the end of 2019, boasts that it has avoided laying off or furloughing workers and that it wants to keep its streak going.

American, United and Delta also rolled out voluntary leave, separation and early retirement programs last week to front-line workers as well as management and administrative employees. —Leslie Josephs

Dow drops 100 points at open as Wall Street aims for third monthly advance in June

9:40 a.m. ET — The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 130 points just after the opening bell while the S&P 500 lost 0.35% and the Nasdaq Composite shed nearly 0.2%. As June trading began on Wall Street, investors looked to extend gains seen since April.

Read updates on stock market activity from CNBC’s Fred Imbert. —Melodie Warner

Fauci concerned about new cases as states work to reopen

9:35 a.m. ET — Photos of crowded bars and packed beaches have made Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, concerned about a potential resurgence in coronavirus cases.

“If people want to get out, they’ve really got to gauge it with the level of the outbreak in their particular area,” Fauci said in an interview with STAT.

Fauci also spoke about vaccine development and said initial data from the first phase of the Moderna vaccine trial “looked very promising from the neutralizing antibody standpoint.” However, he said Moderna should have waited until it had all the data from the first phase before discussing it with the public. —Hannah Miller

New cases reported by region

Eli Lilly starts world’s first human study of potential antibody treatment

7:07 a.m. ET — Eli Lilly said it has begun dosing the first patients in a study of its potential antibody treatment for Covid-19.

The trial started ahead of that of rival Regeneron, which is also developing a potential antibody treatment. Eli Lilly said it expects results from the phase one study by the end of June. Phase one trials of the potential treatment, which uses antibodies from recovered patients to limit the virus’ ability to reproduce, aims to determine whether the treatment is safe for humans. A phase two trial would determine its efficacy in fighting the virus.

Antibody therapies could be used to prevent and treat Covid-19, said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lilly’s chief scientific officer. He added that the potential treatment was developed in partnership with AbCellera and researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“We are privileged to help usher in this new era of drug development with the first potential new medicine specifically designed to attack the virus,” Skovronsky said in a statement. —Will Feuer

American Seafoods confirms 86 positive cases on vessel

6:46 a.m. ET — Seafood processing company American Seafoods has confirmed that a further 85 crew members of one of its vessels have tested positive for Covid-19.

The testing of the entire crew of the American Dynasty followed a positive test of one crew member while the vessel was in port at Bellingham, Washington.

Results are pending for nine outstanding tests, the company said in a statement Sunday. It operates six fish processing vessels

“The American Dynasty has returned to our home port of Seattle. All crew is being quarantined,” American Seafoods said. “American Seafoods is cooperating with the U.S. Coast Guard, the CDC, the Seattle/King County Health Department, Whatcom County Health Department, and the Port of Seattle.” —Holly Ellyatt

Read CNBC’s previous coronavirus live coverage here: Global cases top 6.1 million; China says U.S. ‘addicted to quitting’ after WHO withdrawal

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Gilead says drug helped moderately ill coronavirus patients

A California biotech company says its experimental drug remdesivir improved symptoms when given for five days to moderately ill, hospitalized patients with COVID-19 By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer June 1, 2020, 8:30 PM 3 min read 3 min read Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article […]