Coronavirus US summary: cases, deaths and stimulus checks today
Coronavirus live US: latest Covid-19 news - 26/27 May
US coronavirus latest: 12:00 PST / 15:00 EST on (21:00 CEST on Wednesday 27 May)
According to the latest figures published by Johns Hopkins University, 5,644,562 cases have been detected worldwide, with 352,789 deaths and 2,323,860 people now recovered.
In the USA, there have been 1,691,342 confirmed cases and 99,724 deaths with 384,902 people recovering from the virus.
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Plenty of Republican politicians support the HEROES Act too as Ted Lieu calls for it to be passed into law by the Senate.
Gilead study shows shorter 5-day course of remdesivir works as well as 10-day one
Gilead Sciences Inc, which has suggested that a shorter treatment duration could extend limited supplies of its drug remdesivir, on Wednesday published result of a study showing no significant difference in outcomes between 5- and 10-day courses of the drug for patients with severe COVID-19.
Gilead announced "top-line" findings from the trial on April 29. The full results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
U.S. coronavirus deaths top 100,000 as country reopens
U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 100,000 on Wednesday even as the daily average death toll declines, businesses reopen and Americans emerge from lockdowns across the country.
About 1,400 Americans have died on average each day in May, down from the peak of the outbreak in April when 2,000 people a day died on average.
The U.S. death toll is higher than fatalities from the seasonal flu going back to the 1957-1958 season, when 116,000 died. In about three months, COVID-19 deaths exceed the number of Americans killed in the Korean War, Vietnam War and the U.S. conflict in Iraq from 2003-2011 - combined.
The coronavirus has killed more people than the AIDS epidemic did from 1981 through 1989.
Walt Disney World Resort to reopen: dates, safety measures
Disney World to reopen
Having had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida is to reopen its theme parks in July, the company said on Wednesday.
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This is really not good news for Arizona or the United States. Just when it seemed to be calming down, it appears potentially positive cases are still streaming into hospitals....
It's one of the sadder aspects of the coronavirus as lower income kids fall behind due to lack of technology at home.
It is unclear how it will be affected by travel bans and restrictions but news of re-opening comes as several other states start to loosen their restriction too although large gatherings are still not recommended.
Covid-19 vaccine "still possible by end of 2020"
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases believes that a coronavirus vaccine could be available by the end of the year.
“I still think that we have a good chance, if all the things fall in the right place, that we might have a vaccine that would be deployable by the end of the year, by December and November,” Fauci said on declarations picked up by CNN today.
Significant surge in Covid-19 cases in three states
Alabama, California and Virginia reported strong increases in Covid-19 cases during the past week. California has counted 15,000 new cases since last Thursday and will likely count its 100,000th confirmed Covid-19 case at some point today.
Alabama has suffered a record spike with 500-plus reported cases on four of the past five days according to an analysis of NBC News Covid-19 case data.
Virginia, which is close to 40,000 positive cases, set new one-day highs for confirmed cases on Monday and then again on Tuesday, with 1,615.
Trump threatens to regulate or shut down social media companies
US President Donald Trump has threatened to regulate or shut down social media companies, just one day after Twitter for the first time added a warning to some of his tweets prompting readers to fact check the president's claims.
Trump, without offering any evidence, reiterated his accusations of political bias by such technology platforms in a pair of early morning posts on Twitter, saying: 'Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.' He added: 'Clean up your act, NOW!!!!'
US couple who thought Covid-19 was "fake news" now in hospital with the virus
Brian Lee Hitchens and his wife laughed off warnings about coronavirus, believing it to be nothing more than more fake news designed to scare the public. But now the couple are in an intensive care ward in a Florida hospital after contracting Covid-19, the BBC reports. "We thought the government was using it to distract us, or it was to do with 5G. So we didn't follow the rules or seek help sooner," Brian Lee Hitchens explained. "And now I realise that coronavirus is definitely not fake. It's out there and it's spreading."
Missouri's black community counting the cost of Covid-19 pandemic
Almost 99,000 people in the United States have lost their lives after battling Covid-19, and a disproportionate number of them have been black. In Missouri, while only 11.8% of the state's residents are black, they account for 37% of reported deaths from Covid-19.
Vanity is behind Trump's aversion to masks, says Brit Hume
US president Donald Trump "does not want to look ridiculous" wearing a face mask and his vanity stops him from doing so, Fox News commentator Brit Hume claims. Trump has not been seen wearing a mask in his public appearances despite medical advise urging the public to wear one.
Democrat nominee Joe Biden, who was pictured wearing a mask during the Memorial Day events, said leading doctors recommend wearing a mask in a crowd, particularly where one might get closer than 12 feet away from others, with social distancing measures recommending at least six feet in distance apart.
Confirmed global deaths pass 350,000 mark
The death rate around the world from Covid-19 has passed the 350,000 landmark. The United States fatality rate is the highest in the world accounting for over 98,000 deaths followed by the United Kingdom (37,000) and Italy (32,000).
Trump administration looking at further economic relief measures
Republicans are examining a $450 per week bonus for returning employees.
Twitter questions Trump: US president fact checked for vote by mail tweet
The social media site took the decision to add a blue exclamation mark to the US president's account after fact checking a pair of tweets concerning postal ballots.
Coronavirus USA: Is it safe to fly during Covid-19?
Is it safe to fly during Covid-19?
More people are starting to take flights in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic but air travel is still down about 90 percent from a year ago.
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Twitter adds fact-check to Trump voting-fraud tweets
Twitter has taken the unusual step of adding a fact-checking option to posts by Donald Trump, in the wake of the US president's claims that mail-in voting would increase electoral fraud.
Trump has clashed with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, over the latter's attempts to implement postal voting to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Biden says Trump "an absolute fool" for mocking face mask
Joe Biden, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, has told CNN's Dana Bash that the US president, Donald Trump, is "an absolute fool" for retweeting a tweet that made fun of his face mask.
"Every leading doc in the world is saying we should wear a mask when you're in a crowd," Biden said. "This macho stuff, for a guy - I shouldn't get going, but it just, it costs people's lives. It's costing people's lives."
The former US vice-president added: "Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine."
US death toll could have been "25 times" worse without me - Trump
Speaking at a White House event on treating diabetes, US president Donald Trump has claimed that his administration's management of the coronavirus crisis averted a scenario in which there could have been "25 times" more deaths in the States.
"There would have been anything from 10, to 20, to 25 times more deaths if we didn't act the way we did," Trump said, adding that Dr Anthony Fauci, the US' top infectious diseases expert, told him that his government "saved thousands and thousands of lives" by closing the American border to China.
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
All the information you need to understand the coronavirus and ways to stay safe during the Covid-19 pandemic:
Coronavirus live US updates: welcome
Hello and welcome to our live, United States-focused coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now registered over 5.5 million cases and nearly 350,000 deaths worldwide. Join us for the latest news and numbers as they emerge.