April 26 coronavirus news

By James Griffiths, Jenni Marsh, Tara John, Fernando Alfonso III and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 9:44 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020
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3:58 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

US Treasury and IRS announce 'significant enhancements' to 'Get My Payment' app for stimulus checks

From CNN’s Greg Clary

The US Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service said they've made “significant enhancements to the ‘Get My Payment’ app” to help improve Americans’ ability to receive stimulus checks in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a news release from the Treasury Department.

“Some of the key enhancements include: payment status update for closed bank accounts, greater app access for taxpayers who filed in 2018 but not 2019 and did not use direct deposit, and the ability to submit a ‘0’ amount for zero income filers," a Treasury spokesperson told CNN.

“This Administration has already delivered over 88 million payments in less than three weeks, with millions more on their way," said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. "We encourage people who still need to input their information or want to track their payment to use the app.”

3:06 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

Florida governor doesn't have a date for reopening the state

From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch

Gov. Ron DeSantis is not putting a date on when Florida could reopen, he said at a new conference on Sunday.

“We are going to do everything in a smart way,” DeSantis said. “I am less concerned about the date and more concerned about getting it right.” 

DeSantis met with doctors at Orlando Health – who have been working on using convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19 patients.

DeSantis said the statewide numbers are dropping, but there is still a need for more testing.

The state has reported 31,528 cases and 1,074 deaths.

The current stay-at-home order for the state expires on April 30.

2:42 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

Schumer calls on FDA to crack down on fake coronavirus tests

From CNN's Nicky Robertson

 Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg/Getty Images
 Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on companies who are selling fake at-home coronavirus test kits online.

Schumer said at a press conference on Sunday that he is sending a letter to the FDA to increase policing of online tests, make public which tests have been approved by the FDA and issue cease and resist orders to every company found to be selling false tests.

Schumer warned that the spread of non-FDA approved at-home tests would make the recovery from coronavirus much longer, if people falsely believe that they do not have the virus, or that they have already had it.

2:25 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

There are more than 950,000 cases of coronavirus in the US

There have been at least 954,182 coronavirus cases and 54,573 deaths due to the virus in the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

As states begin to include “probable deaths” in their counts, so will the university. In the upcoming days, these changes may show as surges of deaths in the United States.  

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases and those in the US military, veterans hospitals and federal prisons.  

2:24 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

Birx says the US will need a "breakthrough" in testing to help screen large numbers of people

From CNN Health’s Arman Azad

Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said Sunday that the US will need a breakthrough in testing to help screen large numbers of people.

The US is continuing to scale coronavirus testing, “but at the same time, we have to realize that we have to have a breakthrough innovation in testing,” she said on NBC.

“We have to be able to detect antigen, rather than constantly trying to detect the actual live virus, or the viral particles itself,” Birx added.

Birx was referring to a type of testing technology – antigen testing – that is often used for rapid flu tests.

In a separate interview on CNN, Birx emphasized how the administration has been working in the last week to increase testing capacity – both by increasing usage in labs and by making sure governors are aware of all of the facilities available in their states.

“For every lab, though, they're now – they now have six or seven platforms that they have to integrate and utilize. And labs are learning now how to bring all of those platforms up to hopefully double and increase our testing ability across the country, and to really align the needs,” Birx told CNN. “There's capacity, that tests are not being run. And I think ensuring that they have the swabs, ensuring that they have the tubes to transport the swabs in, and then ensuring that all the laboratory platforms are up and running, and that's the information we gave to the governors."

 

2:14 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

British government is encouraging furloughed workers to help with June crop harvest

From CNN’s Rob Iddiols

A farm worker prepares a field next to a field of flowering rapeseed near Pontefract, England, on April 23.
A farm worker prepares a field next to a field of flowering rapeseed near Pontefract, England, on April 23. Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images

The British Government says it is working on an approach to “encourage” workers who have been placed on furlough as a result of the coronavirus pandemic to help with the harvest of British crops which is expected to start in June.

"We estimate that probably only about a third of the migrant labour that would normally come to the UK is here, and was probably here before lockdown,” the British secretary for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice, said during a news briefing on Sunday. “We are working with industry to identify an approach that will encourage those millions of furloughed workers to in some cases consider taking a second job helping get the harvest in in June."

He said the need for workers is not immediate because the harvest just started, but they do anticipate there will be "a need to help recruit staff for those months in June,” Eustice said.

2:00 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

All patients have been discharged from the USNS Comfort

From CNN’s Taylor Romine and Ryan Browne

USNS Comfort on March 30
USNS Comfort on March 30 Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

All patients have been discharged from the USNS Comfort, according to Northwell Health spokesperson Terry Lynam.

The USNS Comfort, which has been docked in New York City harbor, treated 182 patients during the pandemic.

Separately, the Javits Center is still treating roughly 84 patients, Lynam said.

The USNS Comfort is still expected to depart at the end of the month, according to a United States Defense Official.

The crew will stick around on the ship to do some work to get ready to depart, including disinfecting, cleaning the vessel, stowing medical equipment, and preparing the ship’s engines, the US Defense Official said.

Getting the ship ready to depart will likely take several days, according to the official.

1:55 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

Italy reports lowest daily coronavirus death toll since mid-March

From Nicola Ruotolo in Rome and Rob Iddiols in London

The number of people killed by coronavirus in Italy has increased by 260 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 26,644 since the outbreak began, according to data released by the Italian Civil Protection Agency on Sunday.

The death toll reported on Sunday is the lowest since March 14, according to a tally of data kept by CNN. 

The total number of patients hospitalized with symptoms of the disease decreased by 161.

1:32 p.m. ET, April 26, 2020

Maryland governor says hundreds of people have called asking about ingesting disinfectant

From CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian

Brian Witte/AP
Brian Witte/AP

Following President Trump’s press conference on Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan said his state experienced hundreds of calls from people across Maryland asking whether injecting or ingesting disinfectants was an effective way to combat coronavirus.

“I think it is critical that the President of the United States, when people are really scared and in the middle of this worldwide pandemic, that in these press conferences, that we really get the facts out there,” Hogan told CBS on Sunday.

Hogan emphasized that his state’s coronavirus response team has been trying to base all decisions on information provided by public health doctors and epidemiologists and that they “try to get those facts out to the public so they know exactly what’s going on.”