Coronavirus US live: Cuomo says ‘government essential to human life’

Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to erase any perception of negligence from the timeline of his administration’s coronavirus response continued on Sunday afternoon as he fired off a pair of tweets shortly after returning to the White House following a working weekend at Camp David and ahead of his Fox News virtual town hall tonight at the Lincoln Memorial.

“Intelligence has just reported to me that I was correct, and that they did NOT bring up the CoronaVirus subject matter until late into January, just prior to my banning China from the U.S. Also, they only spoke of the Virus in a very non-threatening, or matter of fact, manner,” Trump tweeted. “Fake News got it wrong again, as always, and tens of thousands of lives were saved by my EARLY BAN of China into our Country. The people that we’re allowed were heavily scrutinized and tested U.S. citizens, and as such, I welcome them with open arms!”

These assertions are inconsistent with a Washington Post report from March which stated Trump ignored early warnings as early as January from US intelligence agencies about the threat posed by the outbreak.

Florida’s department of health has reported the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has climbed past 36,000. But the hotbed of south Florida has seen a drop in known positive test results and now accounts for less than half of the state’s increase in new novel coronavirus cases and deaths, the Miami Herald reports:

Of Florida’s 615 new confirmed Covid-19 cases from Saturday’s update, putting the state at 36,078, 248 (40.3%) came from Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. The 15 newly reported deaths around the state, raising the state death toll to 1,379, include six (40%) from South Florida.

As for number of people tested, the state reported 12,208 new tests have been administered and 1,881 people are now awaiting test results. But that results-pending number includes only state labs. As reported earlier in the month by the Miami Herald, it doesn’t include the private labs doing an overwhelming majority of the testing.

The state’s official numbers also conflict with work from by a University of Miami group that extrapolated from a study of 1,400 people that about 165,000 Miami-Dade residents or 6% of the population, have antibodies indicating a past novel coronavirus infection. About 3.4% of Miami-Dade’s population has been tested for Covid-19.

The breakdown by county:

▪ Miami-Dade had 143 new cases and two deaths, leaving it at 12,775 and 369 respectively, both state highs. The number of people hospitalized at some point by Covid-19 is 1,664, an increase of 13 from Saturday. The positive test rate is 13.7, down from 13.8 at Saturday’s update.

▪ Broward added 55 cases, which now total 5,312; and three deaths, which now total 207; and 12 hospitalizations, which now total 1056. Like Miami-Dade, the county’s positive test rate edged down 0.1 of a percent, to 10.2% from 10.3%.

▪ In Palm Beach, 50 new cases raised that total to 3,130 and one death pushed that total to 196. Another three hospitalizations were reported for a total of 474. The positive test rate moved a breath, from 10.32% to 10.27%.

▪ Monroe County saw no changes in cases (80), hospitalizations (11) or deaths (3) and it’s positive test rate dropped from 5.9% to 5.7%.

The latest figures were reported amid the incremental re-opening of Florida’s beaches, to which Death himself took objection on Friday.

Katherine Viner, editor-in-chief of the Guardian, spoke about imperative nature of open journalism in the age of coronavirus on CNN’s Reliable Sources today on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.

“Whenever there is a shock to the system, governments will try to use that, unless we keep an eye on them, to crack down,” Viner said. “And it’s essential that we try and stop that from happening, or at least draw attention to the fact that freedom of expression and freedom of the press is crucial to any democratic society. And I think transparency matters a lot right now when good information and how you come to it, how you come to the facts, can really help save lives.”

Viner went on to discuss Lost on the frontline, the ongoing project from the Guardian and Kaiser Health News that aims to document the life of every healthcare worker in America who dies from Covid-19 during the pandemic.

“We should be holding authorities to account, wherever they are,” she said. “It’s usually governments but it might also be health authorities. We have to ask difficult questions even if people don’t like it. We have to show empathy and humanity for the victims of this really frightening disease and tell their stories. Often these are from very marginalized communities. And we try to give visibility and humanity to them.”

The Guardian’s Kenya Evelyn reports on how some New Yorkers are calling foul on the city’s enforcement of stay-at-home restrictions.

Community advocates across New York’s Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn boroughs have called out city and state officials or what they claim are racial and ethnic double standards in its application of social distancing orders.

Images of wealthier, white residents in Manhattan disregarding stay-at-home orders in neighborhood parks have gone viral throughout much of the weekend. But many residents have said that so far, it is neighborhoods in the city’s less affluent communities that have been targeted for ticketing and arrests.

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio was forced to apologize this week for personally overseeing the dispersal of a Hasidic Jewish funeral in Brooklyn on Wednesday after lashing out at the conduct of mourners.

But crowds in Manhattan gathered that same day to watch a city flyover by the US navy’s Blue Angels and the air force’s Thunderbirds planes in honor of healthcare workers.

“Only bigots have a problem when a few 100 Hasidim do what thousands of people in the same city have done the same day: not social distance,” the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council tweeted.

The mayor’s actions renewed focus from community leaders on the city’s unequal application of stay-at-home orders, especially as other groups have also been violating restrictions without consequence.

While social distancing is meant to curb the spread, health experts say racial disparities have influenced the outbreak from the beginning. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testing requirements, including recent foreign travel, meant that guidelines skewed heavily affluent and white in early weeks.

That meant low-income, mostly black and brown areas of Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens were not tested as quickly, leading to the city’s stark racial disparities among cases.

More than 18,500 people have died in the city, with nearly two-thirds being black or Latino. New York state’s mandatory stay-at-home order expires 15 May but is expected to be extended.

Cuomo says “people expect more from government than ever before” and discusses the “transformative” effective of this pandemic.

“I believe this has been transformative for a generation,” he says. “Think about when was the last time government was this vital. I don’t know, maybe in a war? World War II, when government had to mobilize overnight? But literally for decades you haven’t seen government this essential to human life. Literally. And government has to work and it has to work well, and it’s not for the faint of heart. And people want government to perform. And government is making decisions every day that affect their lives and they deserve the best government. They’re paying for it, they deserve it. And they deserve competence and expertise and smarts and for government to be doing creative things and learning like we doing here today.”

The New York governor then goes on to stress the importance of individual responsibility in the ongoing fight, reiterating the necessity of social distancing.

“An individual’s role is responsibly and intelligently for yourself for your family and for your community,” he says. “You want to honor the healthcare workers and the people who literally gave their lives in some cases for what they did here? Act responsibly. Wear a mask. I know the weather is getting warmer, I know people want to get out of the house. Fine. Wear a mask and socially distance. That is your social responsibility in the middle of this overall pandemic. And when we talk about New Yorkers together and the spirit of unity and how people are helping one another and how tough we are and how smart we are and how disciplined we are and how we love one other? Show it. You know how you show love? By wearing a mask.”

After noting that New York state has spent more than $2 billion on medical equipment this year alone, Cuomo announces the formation of a regional buying consortium with seven neighboring states to “increase market power and bring down prices” in the pursuit of PPE, ventilators and other medical equipment.

The governor says the mutual-aid agreement “will make us more competitive in the international marketplace and I believe it will save taxpayers money”.

“We will come up with a regional identification of all the equipment we need,” Cuomo says. “Let’s come up with the total amount that we need. Let’s stop doing business with vendors we found to be irresponsible and we found out the hard way – I can’t tell you how many orders we placed with vendors who are acting basically as brokers, who just started businesses in the middle of this pandemic because they saw an opportunity – so let’s compare notes among the states to find out who is good to do business with [and] who was not good to do business with. Let’s see if we can’t do the purchasing in this country and let’s see if we can’t do the purchasing in this region. Why we buying all this material from China? “

Tara Reade, the woman who accuses Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her in a Capitol Hill corridor in 1993, has disputed an Associated Press report that said she said she did not use the words “sexual harassment” in a complaint she says she filed 27 years ago.

The AP report is here.

Reade’s tweets on the matter are here.

“This is false,” Reade wrote first, adding later: “…The headline was quite misleading. I filed the intake form regarding sexual harassment and retaliation however that was articulated on form in 1993. I filed with Senate Personnel. Perhaps Joe Biden knows where that form is located. Ask him.”

Reade also confirmed a report she had cancelled a Fox News Sunday interview after receiving threats, writing: “No survivor be fearful to come forward. And I did file a complaint.”

In a statement and TV interview on Friday, Biden flatly denied the accusation and asked the National Archives to look for Reade’s complaint. The Archive said it wouldn’t have it, but the Senate might.

Donald Trump, who faces and denies numerous accusations of sexual misconduct and assault, commented on the claim against Biden on Friday, as did his new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Here’s Lauren Gambino’s excellent look at the story and its political implications for both parties: