The Food and Drug Administration over the weekend issued emergency use authorization for a rapid and cheap coronavirus test. The test may only be about 85% accurate, but it’s nonetheless a crucial step toward increasing the country’s ability to monitor for new coronavirus outbreaks, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC.
Public health specialists have repeatedly said the ability to test broadly for the coronavirus will be key to boosting surveillance as dozens of states ease restrictions and reopen nonessential businesses. Epidemiologists say this week is when potential new infections would arise in states where governors reopened most aggressively.
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 283,001
- US cases: More than 1.3 million
- US deaths: At least 79,528
The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
11:07 am: Governments could raise taxes on the rich to mitigate coronavirus impact, economist says
The world’s wealthiest people could be about to see tax rate hikes, according to one economist, who told CNBC that governments may do this to bolster their finances following the coronavirus crisis.
Roger Bootle, chairman of Capital Economics, said that if countries’ deficits don’t come down dramatically on the back of economic growth, “then something will have to be done.”
He said a number of countries “might feel that taxes need to go up for some social reason … In particular, it’s quite possible in some countries you’ll see the top taxes — wealth taxes — go up.” —Katrina Bishop
10:58 am: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin sides with Tesla CEO on plant reopening
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that California should prioritize helping Tesla resume production at its Fremont, California, plant amid the pandemic.
“I agree with Elon Musk. He’s one of the biggest employers and manufacturers in California, and California should prioritize doing whatever they need to do to solve those health issues so that he can open quickly and safely,” Mnuchin said.
Tesla CEO Musk has been pushing to resume production at the plant despite local officials arguing against a sudden move. Musk on Saturday threatened to pull the company out of the state due to the closure. —Jessica Bursztynsky
10:36 am: Toyota plans to cut North American production by 29% through October
Toyota Motor plans to reduce production in North America by nearly a third through October and said it anticipates that it’s going to take some time for output to return to normal, Reuters reported, citing a source.
Toyota will build around 800,000 vehicles through October at plants in the U.S., Mexico and Mexico, the person told Reuters. That is down 29% from the same period last year. —Terri Cullen
10:27 am: Detroit automakers weathering pandemic
No one could have prepared for Covid-19, but Detroit automakers are weathering the storm without talk of bankruptcies or the need for the same level of assistance the airline industry just received.
It’s a stark contrast from 2008 and 2009. Much of the optimism now is the result of the Great Recession. During that time, Detroit automakers were forced to shed billions in capital expenditures and structural costs. From then on, executives such as General Motors CEO and Chairman Mary Barra made it their mission to fortify balance sheets in preparation for the next downturn, despite not knowing when or how it would occur.
Morgan Stanley conducted a “shutdown analysis” that gave it “confidence” that GM, Ford and others “can largely avoid the fate many companies experienced in 2008/2009.” GM was ahead of the curve in preparing for a downturn. It exited unprofitable markets like Europe, and in November 2018 announced plans to shed thousands of jobs and close factories as part of a $6 billion cost-saving plan through 2020, which remains on track. —Michael Wayland
10:22 am: Consumer advocate fears rise of ‘vehement’ debt collectors
Debt collectors could present a new threat to consumers as unemployment woes worsen, says Richard Cordray, consumer advocate and former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He sat down with CNBC to discuss the coronavirus downturn and its effect on consumers.
Some 20.5 million jobs were lost in April, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7%, according to the Labor Department. Persistent unemployment will lead to debt collectors taking a tougher stance on borrowers, he said.
“They’ll potentially go over the legal lines they’re not supposed to cross in terms of pursuing debt collection,” said Cordray.
“It’s one thing to fall behind on your bills and potentially have some time to figure it out and catch up on payments,” he said. “It’s another thing to have huge disruptions that come from losing your home, or your car, or being forced into bankruptcy, or having your credit ruined, which will start happening to consumers as this persists over time.” —Darla Mercado
10:15 am: Working from home is here to stay, even when the economy reopens
As the U.S. economy began to go into lockdown, forcing many Americans to work from home, companies in technology, insurance, and financial services industries invested heavily in remote work tools.
As workers and managers began to adapt to the new normal, it seems unlikely companies will be returning to the old way of doing business. The first batch of employees to return to the office will be the ones who are itching to get back, but even that won’t start happening for weeks or months.
“We’re going to see this come back more slowly than you might have expected,” said Liz Fealy, who runs the global workforce advisory group at EY. As part of the series “The Next Normal,” CNBC’s Ari Levy examines what happens when office life reopens and what becomes of remote work. —Terri Cullen
10:04 am: Abbott Labs wins FDA emergency use for antibody test
Abbott Laboratories was granted emergency use approval (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration for a new coronavirus antibody test it says can exclude false positives 99.6% of the time and exclude false negatives 100% of the time.
The EUA means laboratories will be allowed to use the test even though it has not been formally approved or cleared by the FDA. Last week, the FDA tightened rules for coronavirus antibody tests, ordering manufacturers to submit emergency use authorization forms and data proving the tests work within 10 days or face possible removal.
Abbott plans to ship nearly 30 million tests — which can indicate whether a person has had Covid-19 in the past and was either asymptomatic or recovered — in May and will have the capacity to ship 60 million tests in June, the company said in a press release. —Berkeley Lovelace, Jr.
9:55 am: White House advisor Navarro threatens China with retaliation over virus
White House advisor Peter Navarro threatened unspecified retaliation against China over coronavirus during an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” warning that “a bill has to come due” for the country.
“They inflicted tremendous damage on the world, which is still ongoing,” Navarro said. “We’re up to close to $10 trillion we’ve had to appropriate to fight this battle.”
The comments come as tensions escalate between the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, as each seeks to pin blame on the other for the spread of Covid-19. The Phase 1 trade deal reached earlier this year seems to hang in the balance. While trade negotiators for the two countries continue to project confidence, Trump said Friday that he was “very torn” over whether to scrap the pact. —Tucker Higgins
9:38 am: Tudor Jones says US could have a ‘second Depression’ if lockdown remains a year from now
Paul Tudor Jones speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 21, 2020.
Adam Galica | CNBC
Hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC if the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t get contained for another year and the lockdown remains in place, the economy would be in a “second Depression.”
“If a year from now, we are still in the same situation, we would be called a second Depression,” Jones said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “Just depends on whether, unfortunately, this goes to a year with this kind of a lockdown.”
The Great Depression from 1929 to 1939 was the worst economic downturn in U.S. history. The founder and CEO of Tudor Investment said because of how America feels about individual freedoms, the country may have trouble following contact tracing and different methods used by other nations to quickly contain the virus.
“If you look at the Asian countries that are succeeding and beating this, they are doing it because they place a much greater emphasis on society values than they do on individual rights,” Jones said. “Americans are too different. I don’t think we would be able to come together and do that.” –Yun Li
9:30 am: How shopping for clothes is going to change in a post-Covid-19 world
A new study by retail predictive analytics company First Insight found 65% of women said they will not feel safe trying on clothes in dressing rooms, due to the Covid-19 crisis, while 54% of men said the same.
Retailers that sell clothing are trying to figure out how to adapt, and to make sure their stores and dressing rooms are safe. Some, such as Kohl’s, are closing fitting rooms until further notice. Many retailers are also holding aside merchandise that has been tried on by shoppers or returned to the stores for at least 24 hours before putting them back on shelves. Suitsupply is installing clear partitioners to separate employees from customers during alterations.
“The coronavirus has moved the industry away from high-touch to low-touch,” First Insight Chief Executive Greg Petro said. —Lauren Thomas
8:19 am: Shanghai Disneyland reopens at 30% capacity
8:05 am: Under Armour sales take a hit amid pandemic
Under Armour reported an adjusted loss of 34 cents per share on revenue of $930.2 million during its fiscal first quarter ended March 31. Sales were down 23% overall from a year earlier, as fewer people stocked up on its sneakers and workout garb. Under Armour said roughly 15 percentage points of that decline stemmed from the Covid-19 crisis. The athletic apparel and sneaker maker ended the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $959 million.
As some retailers such as Macy’s are already reopening stores, hoping to bounce back from the crisis sooner rather than later, Under Armour also said, “the pace and timing of store openings, and traffic patterns when the stores re-open, remain highly uncertain.” —Lauren Thomas
7:09 am: New antigen tests are ‘another tool,’ former FDA chief says
A new coronavirus test is rolling out that could cost just $5 and offer results in minutes, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said.
The FDA on Saturday issued emergency use authorization for Quidel‘s new antigen test. The diagnostic tests quickly detect fragments of proteins known as antigens found on or within the virus by testing samples collected from the nasal cavity using swabs.
Gottlieb, a CNBC contributor who sits on the boards of Pfizer and biotech company Illumina, said some 40,000 doctors already have the equipment needed to process the tests because it’s the same machine that would be used for flu and strep throat.
However, the new test is only about 85% sensitive, Gottlieb said, so test results will still need to be confirmed with another kind of test like the more standard diagnostic PCR test. He added that the test is best used to confirm that symptomatic individuals are in fact infected with the coronavirus, but not for screening potentially healthy people.
“But the virtue is, for the first 85 patients, you’ve now effectively diagnosed them right away in the doctor’s office in about five minutes, very inexpensively without having to reflex, without having to send off a PCR-based test,” he said. “So this really does expand the ability to test within the doctor’s office. And it’s another tool, another layer of testing.” —Will Feuer
6:45 pm: Germany says it takes uptick in virus reproduction rate seriously
Citizens stand in a queue to buy anti-aerosol masks and disposable medical masks at a sales booth in front of the Beuel town hall during the novel coronavirus crisis on April 29 2020 in Bonn, Germany.
Andreas Rentz
Germany’s health ministry said Monday it takes a rise in the country’s virus reproduction rate seriously, but a higher number does not mean there is an uncontrolled outbreak, according to a Reuters report.
The reproduction number is a measure of how many people an infected individual will go on to infect, on average. Health authorities have aimed to keep the number below 1 in order to gradually reduce the number of infections, but in Germany, the number has risen to 1.1, according to the Robert Koch Institute for disease control.
A number above 1 means the number of infections is increasing. Germany started to lift lockdown restrictions around three weeks ago. —Holly Ellyatt
Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Russia sees record daily rise in new cases; Spain death toll at seven-week low
