April 14 coronavirus news

General Motors is ready to ship its first production of ventilators starting today, the company said in a statement.

GM started building ventilators in partnership with Ventec for Covid-19 patients last month at their Kokomo plant in Indiana.

There will be 600 ventilators shipped by the end of this month, with the rest of the government’s 30,000 ventilator order completed by the end of August.

This first batch of ventilators from GM will be sent to hospitals in Gary, Indiana, and Chicago, according to Navarro.

There are at least 592,743 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

At least 24,737 people have died in the US from coronavirus.   

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases. 

Today, Johns Hopkins has reported 10,136 new cases and 1,109 reported deaths. 

A French court has ordered Amazon to reduce its delivery operations to cover only essential goods

The court's ruling warned that if this is not met within 24 hours, the company could face a penalty of 1 million euros for each day of delay –– that's more than $1 million USD each day. 

In its ruling today, Nanterre Court of Justice ordered Amazon to further regulate its activities to receiving, preparing and delivering only essential goods, such as food, hygiene and medical products, and has required the company to carry out an assessment of the "occupational risks inherent in the Covid-19 epidemic" in all of its warehouses, according to an ordinance seen by CNN. 

The ruling follows the filing of a complaint by the French workers’ union — Union Syndicats Solidaires — which has accused the online delivery giant of endangering the lives of workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement to CNN, the union said Amazon had violated the withdrawal rights of employees, alleging that the company threatened to suspend employee salaries. 

Amazon has since affirmed that the safety of employees remains its priority. 

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our employees...over the past four weeks, we have distributed more than 127,000 packs of disinfected wipes, 27,000 laters of hand sanitizers, and more than 1,5 million masks to our sites in France," Mandouze said. 

The first UN relief “solidarity flight” carrying urgently needed Covid-19 supplies to African countries will depart Ethiopia on Tuesday, according to a joint statement from the African Union (AU), World Food Program (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.

WFP planes will transport WHO equipment such as face shields, gloves, goggles, gowns, masks, medical aprons, thermometers and ventilators from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the regional humanitarian air hub was set up by the WFP this week. One million face masks will be shipped in addition to the personal protective equipment and laboratory supplies, which is expected to “be enough to protect health workers while treating more than 30,000 patients across the continent,” the statement said.

The WHO has dispatched personal protective equipment and lab supplies to 95 countries around the world.

Italy has reported an increase of 675 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the lowest increase in numbers since March 1.

But 10,000 less tests were also administered in that time frame. There are now 104,291 active coronavirus cases, according to the Italian Civil Protection Agency.

The number of deaths continues to rise but at a slower pace. On Tuesday, there were 602 new deaths, increasing the total number of fatalities to 21,067.

The total number of cases in Italy is now 162,488.

The number of people being admitted to British hospitals because of Covid-19 appears to be stabilizing, a top UK health official said today.  

“You can see that there is increasing evidence now that the number of hospital admissions is stabilizing and plateauing…This is evidence, that is now accumulating, that the benefits of social distancing and reducing transmission is now beginning to manifest in a stabilization of hospital admissions,” said Stephen Powis, the national medical director of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

But he warned that people must not take their “foot off the pedal” with social distancing and other measures instated to stop the spread of the virus.

While the data shows a plateau in the number of new cases, he conceded that not enough testing is being done in order for a true picture.

Deaths from the virus are still increasing and that number is expected to continue to rise, he added.

“This is number that will reduce last, unfortunately. With sadness, it is the one that will take longest to change. But those benefits from social distancing will eventually translate into a reduction in the number of daily deaths," Powis said.

Dr. James Phillips, a physician and assistant professor at George Washington University Hospital, says reopening the economy by May 1 "is a pipe dream."

Phillips said while he agrees the country should be talking about how to restart the economy and get people back to work, there needs to be a plan in place to protect Americans.

"In disaster medicine we talk about something called disaster cycle, where you start considering the return to normal almost immediately after the event occurs. It is appropriate to start talking about this. But, we have to have the right steps in place before we get there," Phillips said.

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The United States doesn’t have the capacity to test and trace Covid-19 cases — a key measure the country will need to start the process of reopening, according to the nation’s top infectious disease doctor.

Fauci’s comments come the day after President Trump promised guidelines “soon” aimed at governors to reopen the economy. 

He added that opening the country on May 1, after federal social distancing guidelines are set to expire, is “a bit overly optimistic” for many places in the US. This process, he said, would likely have to occur on a “rolling” basis and not simultaneously across the country. A key worry, he said, was that the US would see new outbreaks in places where officials may not be able to swiftly test and trace contacts of those who are infected. 

These concerns reflect those New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Monday – that states lack sufficient capacity to test on their own.

"It's not as simple as saying states should test,” Cuomo said. They can't do it without the federal government. There are not enough tests now, and there's not enough reagents, and there's not enough medical equipment.”

Referring to other governors joining over the phone from states including Connecticut and New Jersey, he added, “Any one of these governors would tell you ... they don't have the testing capacity, and they can't gather it themselves.”

Fauci stopped short of telling The Associated Press that a second wave of infection isn’t inevitable but said, “If you mean it goes way down and then come September, October, November, we have another peak – I have to say I would not be surprised. I would hope that if and when that occurs, that we jump all over it in a much, much more effective way than we have in these past few months.”

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak played down a report from the country's independent public finances watchdog that indicated the economy could shrink by 35% in the second quarter in the scenario there is a three-month lockdown.

Sunak, speaking at the government’s daily coronavirus press briefing, said the report is not a “forecast or a prediction.”

The Office for Budget Responsibility also forecasts that the economy will bounce back quickly, leading to an annual drop in GDP of 13%. 

“It is important to be clear that the OBR’s number are– they simply set out what one possible scenario might look like, and it is not even the most likely scenario. The OBR’s figures suggest that the scale of what we are facing will have serious implications for our economy here at home," he said.

But Sunak conceded “these are tough times and there will be more to come.” 

The British government, he said, is “not just going to stand by and let this happen.” Measures put in place to help unemployed people and businesses impacted by coronavirus “can significantly mitigate that impact.”

Sunak said the British economy will bounce back from stay-at-home measures.