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Coronavirus live updates: Meat shortages expected despite Trump order; 3.8M unemployment claims; NYC to close subway at night

As the record numbers of jobless claims amid the coronavirus pandemic rose again Thursday, casting a dim light on the extent of the virus' economic damage, more than half of states plan to lift some stay-at-home restrictions by the end of the week. 
President Donald Trump also hopes to "reopen" the country as federal government will not extend social distancing guidelines set to expire Thursday. Despite this, California is poised to made a bold move in the opposite direction: Closing all beaches and state parks. 
Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inbox with The Daily Briefing. 
Here are the most important developments of the day on the coronavirus pandemic: 
  • Despite President Trump's executive order to keep meat packing plants open, American slaughterhouses processed nearly a million fewer cattle, hogs and sheep this week than they did during the same time a year ago. Experts say this new low will likely increase "spot" shortages of meat at some grocery stores. 
  • Rankled by the tens of thousands of people who disobeyed stay-at-home orders last weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom will close all beaches and state parks, according to a memo sent to police chiefs across the state on Wednesday night.
  • Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March.
Here's some good news for the day: A British army veteran who raised more than £31 million ($38 million) for his health care workers is celebrating his 100th birthday with a military flyover, more than 150,000 birthday cards, and a message from the Queen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
What we're talking about: Vice President Mike Pence faced criticism after he toured the Mayo Clinic earlier this week without wearing a mask. Second lady Karen Pence said he didn't know the Minnesota hospital's policy asking that everyone wear one.

New York City subway system to shut down from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each day

New York City will shut down its subway system from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every day beginning Wednesday in order to disinfect each train nightly, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
The nightly shutdown plan will disrupt the subway system's 24-hour service, which Cuomo said was necessary to ensure each train can be appropriately cleaned as the state remains the epicenter of the nation's coronavirus outbreak.
"This is as ambitious as anything we have ever undertaken and it’s going to require a lot of effort from many agencies working together," Cuomo said.
– Jon Campbell

Global environmental leaders call for shutdown of high-risk wildlife markets

More than 100 scientists and conservation leaders from more than 25 countries have signed a letter calling on governments to shut down some wildlife markets, especially ones in high-density areas, and to amp up global efforts to curb wildlife trafficking.
The environmental leaders say the steps are necessary to help prevent the possible outbreak of another global pandemic. Many scientists agree the novel coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan, China, late last year jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a wildlife market.
Wildlife markets provide a setting with "perfect opportunities" for viruses to jump species, said Steve Osofsky, the Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
"If you’re a virus whose ‘goal’ is to spread, you couldn’t really design a better system to aid and abet a pandemic, particularly in dense urban centers," Osofsky said. The World Wildlife Fund organized the letter's launch and signatures. 

Kristen Bell: Homeschooling amid quarantine is 'absolutely miserable'

Kristen Bell is getting real about teaching her children amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On the Season 5 premiere of the actress' web series "#Momsplaining" Thursday, Bell explained why homeschooling hasn't been so great.
"Of course, we've all come to know the two worst words in the human language: Home schooling," she said. "Doing school work with them, it is absolutely miserable. When we started this quarantine, the first math worksheet I gave my daughter, in all the answer lines she wrote, ‘No. No. No. No. No.' "
She continued, "There are a few people that have come out victorious in this situation though. Germaphobes, stay-at-home moms, they're all like, ‘I told you how (expletive) hard this is.' "
– Sara M. Moniuszko

Trump's intelligence chief: Coronavirus not man-made

American intelligence officials agree with "the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified," President Donald Trump's top intelligence office said Thursday. 
But U.S. intelligence agencies will continue to examine whether the virus originated in animals and then jumped to humans – or if it was accidentally released by a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged.
Trump and his allies have called for an investigation into the origins of the virus. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested, without citing evidence, that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – a theory that many scientists have disputed. The World Health Organization said earlier this month the virus probably came from an animal.
Thursday's statement from national intelligence director Richard Grenell comes after the New York Times reported that Trump administration officials were pushing intelligence agencies to search for evidence supporting the theory it escaped the lab in Wuhan.
– Deirdre Shesgreen

More need-to-know information from USA TODAY

Evidence grows that deaths from coronavirus is undercounted

Federal data released this week offers more evidence that the official tally of coronavirus deaths is low. The number of deaths recorded in the U.S. this year is higher than normal, even when factoring in deaths attributed to COVID-19.
The phenomenon is pronounced in states with some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks. From March 22 to April 11:
  • New York saw 14,403 more deaths than the average of the previous six years
  • New Jersey saw an additional 4,439 deaths
  • Michigan an additional 1,572
Experts suspect that unconfirmed coronavirus cases could be responsible for some of those deaths, but it might also be related to a shift in other causes of death, such as pneumonia. Read more here. 
– Jayme Fraser, Daveen Rae Kurutz, Jessica Priest and Kevin Crowe

Unemployment claims climb to 30M; Stocks fall 

About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, a grim marker revealing how badly the pandemic has crippled the U.S. economy.
Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country.
While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley.
Stocks fell Thursday after the Labor Department announcement, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 338 points, or 1.4%, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 down 1.1%. The Nasdaq was down 0.5%.
– Charisse Jones and Jessica Menton

Supreme Court to hear oral arguments over the phone and stream them live

The Supreme Court next week begins hearing oral arguments over the phone – a small step for social distancing, but a giant leap for the justices.
For decades, the court has ignored most of the technological and transparency advancements adopted by other branches of government. It took a global pandemic to shake things up. 
When Supreme Court Marshal Pamela Talkin cries "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" at 10 a.m. sharp Monday, she will be using Alexander Graham Bell's invention of 1876, but with a twist: C-SPAN, which came along a century later, will carry two weeks of arguments live.
“COVID-19 was able to do in two months what C-SPAN has been trying to get the court to do for 35 years,” says Bruce Collins, the public affairs network's general counsel.
– Richard Wolf

Memo: California Gov. Gavin Newsom set to close all beaches, state parks

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed Friday after tens of thousands of people flocked to the seashore last weekend during a heat wave despite his stay-at-home order, according to a memo sent Wednesday evening to police chiefs around the state.
Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said it was sent to give chiefs time to plan ahead of Newsom’s expected announcement Thursday.
A message to the governor’s office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned on Wednesday night.
Newsom this week targeted beachgoers in Orange and Ventura counties, calling them an example of “what not to do” if the state wants to continue its progress fighting the coronavirus.

Need-to-know numbers Thursday: Florida shutdown

Gov. Ron DeSantis is easing back on Florida’s month-long shutdown, softening stay-at-home restrictions across the state but maintaining tough limits in hard-hit Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
“We need to focus on facts, not fear,” DeSantis said of the phase-in, set to take effect Monday. Flagler County beaches are already open 24 hours a day without restrictions. (Social distancing is in place.)
As the pandemic is continuing to unfold, USA TODAY is tracking the data. Here’s what’s new.
  • More than 1 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 – equivalent to the population of Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale combined. More than 60,000 Americans are already dead – a number greater than the entire population of Sarasota.
  • In Florida, more than 32,000 cases are confirmed with more than 1,200 are dead. More than 5,400 were hospitalized.
- Mike Stucka, John Kennedy, Erica Van Buren

Roger Goodell reduces salary to $0 as NFL workers take pay cuts

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who makes upward of $30 million a year from salaries and bonuses, voluntarily had his salary reduced to $0 this month, The Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed source.
Other NFL workers have also taken paycuts or furloughs due to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The league is implementing tiered reductions in base salary, but no employee earning a base salary of less than $100,000 will be affected by these reductions, and no employee’s salary will be reduced below $100,000 by the reductions, Goodell said in a memo to league office staffers.

Remdesivir sees positive trial results as possible coronavirus treatment

The first possible scientifically proven treatment for COVID-19 emerged Wednesday with early data from a global study finding patients given the experimental drug remdesivir recovered faster and may be less likely to die.
Early results released from the global study conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found patients who received remdesivir had a 31% faster recovery time than those who received a placebo.
While not a "knock out," NIAID director Anthony Fauci said at an Oval Office meeting Wednesday, the study results were "a very important proof of concept."
Earlier Wednesday, pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences said remdesivir produced "similar improvement" in patients over a 10-day treatment plan compared with a five-day treatment plan.
– Elizabeth Weise and Nathan Bomey

More coronavirus news and information from USA TODAY

NYC funeral home stored bodies in moving trucks

Police were called to a New York City funeral home that was storing bodies on ice in rented trucks after a a passerby complained about the smell, authorities said.
A law enforcement official speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said that about 50 corpses were found in the four trucks outside Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
No criminal charges were brought, and workers in protective gear were seen transferring the bodies from the rented trucks to a larger refrigerated truck, obtained later in the day. The funeral home was cited for failing to control the odors.

Jared Kushner: Government's response to coronavirus 'great success story'

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner called the federal government's response to the coronavirus outbreak "a great success story” on Wednesday as cases topped 1 million and the death toll passed 60,000 in the United States. 
Kushner, the president's son-in-law who has been serving on the White House coronavirus task force, doesn't often make public appearances. During an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, Kushner said, "I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So the government, federal government, rose to the challenge and this is a great success story. I think that's really what needs to be told." He also claimed that by June "a lot of the country should be back to normal," and that by July, "the country's really rocking again."
Researchers at Harvard University recently concluded the U.S. would need to conduct 500,000 to 700,000 coronavirus tests a day to begin reopening safely. Last week the country averaged 210,000 daily tests, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
– Savannah Behrmann

Trump's meat order brings anxiety to COVID-stricken Iowa town

Local officials worry that President Donald Trump's executive order requiring meatpacking plants to remain open could threaten the health of 2,800 workers at the Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa, that closed last week because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
But pork producers say the president's action provides "hope and relief" for farmers who face destroying thousands of pigs backed up on farms as the coronavirus has slowed and closed meatpacking processing plants across the country.
The conflict between the president, meat processors and local officials has been brewing for weeks, as the number of positive virus tests among meatpacking employees has shot up. As the workers have gotten sick, companies have shut down massive plants, raising supply chain fears.
About 90% of the 1,326 people testing positive for COVID-19 in Black Hawk County, Iowa, are tied to the Tyson pork processing plant, health officials have said. Thirteen people in the county have died from the coronavirus.
Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart said he hopes Tyson and other companies that have closed plants "aren't forced to open" before putting the necessary safety precautions in place to protect workers. State Rep. Ras Smith said it had only been a week since the Tyson plant in closed, and COVID-19 testing for employees was not complete.
– Donnelle Eller and Barbara Rodriguez

Costco returning to normal hours, but face masks required

Costco plans to return to normal operating hours next week but customers and employees alike will be required to wear face-coverings or masks.
The requirement does not apply to children under the age of 2 or to people who are unable to wear a mask or face covering due to a medical condition, according to a Costco statement. Select Costco warehouses will also be open from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, for members ages 60 and older and people with disabilities.
– Coral Murphy

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces free testing for all residents

Hours after Los Angeles County reported its greatest surge in new coronavirus cases, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced free testing would be available for all residents in the city and county.
"While priority will still be given to those with symptoms, individuals without symptoms can also be tested," Garcetti said on Twitter, directing people to sign up at Coronavirus.LACity.org/Testing. He touted Los Angeles as the "first major city in America" to open free COVID-19 testing to all residents.
There were 1,541 new confirmed cases on Wednesday in Los Angeles County, nearly 1,000 more than on Tuesday, the county's public health department announced. Los Angeles' death toll of 1,056 as of Wednesday night is the highest of any city in the western United States.
– Steve Kiggins

NYC docs see strokes in young people who had mild coronavirus symptoms

New York City doctors say the coronavirus is triggering a surge in strokes in younger patients, causing alarm among medical experts. Over a two-week period, Mount Sinai doctors reported five patients under the age of 50 who suffered large vessel strokes, according to a letter they published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
All five patients tested positive for COVID-19 but had very mild to no symptoms. Dr. J Mocco, director of the Cerebrovascular Center at Mount Sinai and one of the letter’s authors, said these stroke patients in New York were 15 years younger than the normal stroke population, had no risk factors and were statistically more likely to be male.
“That creates a big alarm,” Mocco said. “Our spider sense goes up to say that there’s something not right here.”
– Adrianna Rodriguez

More coronavirus headlines from USA TODAY

  • Your coronavirus money questions, answered:Am I eligible for unemployment? Can I receive money or food? Will my stimulus check be taxed?
  • This New York woman was born during the 1918 flu pandemic.She just survived coronavirus.
  • Missing money?Here are 6 reasons why your $1,200 check may not be in the mail.
  • Want to clean, reuse or hack a coronavirus mask? Here's how.
  • Coronavirus is 'shining a bright light' on the ills of poverty. What now?As the record numbers of jobless claims amid the coronavirus pandemic rose again Thursday, casting a dim light on the extent of the virus' economic damage, more than half of states plan to lift some stay-at-home restrictions by the end of the week. 
    President Donald Trump also hopes to "reopen" the country as federal government will not extend social distancing guidelines set to expire Thursday. Despite this, California is poised to made a bold move in the opposite direction: Closing all beaches and state parks. 
    Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inbox with The Daily Briefing. 
    Here are the most important developments of the day on the coronavirus pandemic: 
    • Despite President Trump's executive order to keep meat packing plants open, American slaughterhouses processed nearly a million fewer cattle, hogs and sheep this week than they did during the same time a year ago. Experts say this new low will likely increase "spot" shortages of meat at some grocery stores. 
    • Rankled by the tens of thousands of people who disobeyed stay-at-home orders last weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom will close all beaches and state parks, according to a memo sent to police chiefs across the state on Wednesday night.
    • Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March.
    Here's some good news for the day: A British army veteran who raised more than £31 million ($38 million) for his health care workers is celebrating his 100th birthday with a military flyover, more than 150,000 birthday cards, and a message from the Queen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
    What we're talking about: Vice President Mike Pence faced criticism after he toured the Mayo Clinic earlier this week without wearing a mask. Second lady Karen Pence said he didn't know the Minnesota hospital's policy asking that everyone wear one.

    New York City subway system to shut down from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each day

    New York City will shut down its subway system from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every day beginning Wednesday in order to disinfect each train nightly, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.
    The nightly shutdown plan will disrupt the subway system's 24-hour service, which Cuomo said was necessary to ensure each train can be appropriately cleaned as the state remains the epicenter of the nation's coronavirus outbreak.
    "This is as ambitious as anything we have ever undertaken and it’s going to require a lot of effort from many agencies working together," Cuomo said.
    – Jon Campbell

    Global environmental leaders call for shutdown of high-risk wildlife markets

    More than 100 scientists and conservation leaders from more than 25 countries have signed a letter calling on governments to shut down some wildlife markets, especially ones in high-density areas, and to amp up global efforts to curb wildlife trafficking.
    The environmental leaders say the steps are necessary to help prevent the possible outbreak of another global pandemic. Many scientists agree the novel coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan, China, late last year jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a wildlife market.
    Wildlife markets provide a setting with "perfect opportunities" for viruses to jump species, said Steve Osofsky, the Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
    "If you’re a virus whose ‘goal’ is to spread, you couldn’t really design a better system to aid and abet a pandemic, particularly in dense urban centers," Osofsky said. The World Wildlife Fund organized the letter's launch and signatures. 

    Kristen Bell: Homeschooling amid quarantine is 'absolutely miserable'

    Kristen Bell is getting real about teaching her children amid the coronavirus pandemic.
    On the Season 5 premiere of the actress' web series "#Momsplaining" Thursday, Bell explained why homeschooling hasn't been so great.
    "Of course, we've all come to know the two worst words in the human language: Home schooling," she said. "Doing school work with them, it is absolutely miserable. When we started this quarantine, the first math worksheet I gave my daughter, in all the answer lines she wrote, ‘No. No. No. No. No.' "
    She continued, "There are a few people that have come out victorious in this situation though. Germaphobes, stay-at-home moms, they're all like, ‘I told you how (expletive) hard this is.' "
    – Sara M. Moniuszko

    Trump's intelligence chief: Coronavirus not man-made

    American intelligence officials agree with "the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified," President Donald Trump's top intelligence office said Thursday. 
    But U.S. intelligence agencies will continue to examine whether the virus originated in animals and then jumped to humans – or if it was accidentally released by a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged.
    Trump and his allies have called for an investigation into the origins of the virus. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has suggested, without citing evidence, that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – a theory that many scientists have disputed. The World Health Organization said earlier this month the virus probably came from an animal.
    Thursday's statement from national intelligence director Richard Grenell comes after the New York Times reported that Trump administration officials were pushing intelligence agencies to search for evidence supporting the theory it escaped the lab in Wuhan.
    – Deirdre Shesgreen

    More need-to-know information from USA TODAY

    Evidence grows that deaths from coronavirus is undercounted

    Federal data released this week offers more evidence that the official tally of coronavirus deaths is low. The number of deaths recorded in the U.S. this year is higher than normal, even when factoring in deaths attributed to COVID-19.
    The phenomenon is pronounced in states with some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks. From March 22 to April 11:
    • New York saw 14,403 more deaths than the average of the previous six years
    • New Jersey saw an additional 4,439 deaths
    • Michigan an additional 1,572
    Experts suspect that unconfirmed coronavirus cases could be responsible for some of those deaths, but it might also be related to a shift in other causes of death, such as pneumonia. Read more here. 
    – Jayme Fraser, Daveen Rae Kurutz, Jessica Priest and Kevin Crowe

    Unemployment claims climb to 30M; Stocks fall 

    About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, a grim marker revealing how badly the pandemic has crippled the U.S. economy.
    Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country.
    While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley.
    Stocks fell Thursday after the Labor Department announcement, with the Dow Jones industrial average down 338 points, or 1.4%, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 down 1.1%. The Nasdaq was down 0.5%.
    – Charisse Jones and Jessica Menton

    Supreme Court to hear oral arguments over the phone and stream them live

    The Supreme Court next week begins hearing oral arguments over the phone – a small step for social distancing, but a giant leap for the justices.
    For decades, the court has ignored most of the technological and transparency advancements adopted by other branches of government. It took a global pandemic to shake things up. 
    When Supreme Court Marshal Pamela Talkin cries "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" at 10 a.m. sharp Monday, she will be using Alexander Graham Bell's invention of 1876, but with a twist: C-SPAN, which came along a century later, will carry two weeks of arguments live.
    “COVID-19 was able to do in two months what C-SPAN has been trying to get the court to do for 35 years,” says Bruce Collins, the public affairs network's general counsel.
    – Richard Wolf

    Memo: California Gov. Gavin Newsom set to close all beaches, state parks

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed Friday after tens of thousands of people flocked to the seashore last weekend during a heat wave despite his stay-at-home order, according to a memo sent Wednesday evening to police chiefs around the state.
    Eric Nuñez, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, said it was sent to give chiefs time to plan ahead of Newsom’s expected announcement Thursday.
    A message to the governor’s office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned on Wednesday night.
    Newsom this week targeted beachgoers in Orange and Ventura counties, calling them an example of “what not to do” if the state wants to continue its progress fighting the coronavirus.

    Need-to-know numbers Thursday: Florida shutdown

    Gov. Ron DeSantis is easing back on Florida’s month-long shutdown, softening stay-at-home restrictions across the state but maintaining tough limits in hard-hit Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
    “We need to focus on facts, not fear,” DeSantis said of the phase-in, set to take effect Monday. Flagler County beaches are already open 24 hours a day without restrictions. (Social distancing is in place.)
    As the pandemic is continuing to unfold, USA TODAY is tracking the data. Here’s what’s new.
    • More than 1 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 – equivalent to the population of Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale combined. More than 60,000 Americans are already dead – a number greater than the entire population of Sarasota.
    • In Florida, more than 32,000 cases are confirmed with more than 1,200 are dead. More than 5,400 were hospitalized.
    - Mike Stucka, John Kennedy, Erica Van Buren

    Roger Goodell reduces salary to $0 as NFL workers take pay cuts

    NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who makes upward of $30 million a year from salaries and bonuses, voluntarily had his salary reduced to $0 this month, The Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed source.
    Other NFL workers have also taken paycuts or furloughs due to the economic impacts of the pandemic. The league is implementing tiered reductions in base salary, but no employee earning a base salary of less than $100,000 will be affected by these reductions, and no employee’s salary will be reduced below $100,000 by the reductions, Goodell said in a memo to league office staffers.

    Remdesivir sees positive trial results as possible coronavirus treatment

    The first possible scientifically proven treatment for COVID-19 emerged Wednesday with early data from a global study finding patients given the experimental drug remdesivir recovered faster and may be less likely to die.
    Early results released from the global study conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found patients who received remdesivir had a 31% faster recovery time than those who received a placebo.
    While not a "knock out," NIAID director Anthony Fauci said at an Oval Office meeting Wednesday, the study results were "a very important proof of concept."
    Earlier Wednesday, pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences said remdesivir produced "similar improvement" in patients over a 10-day treatment plan compared with a five-day treatment plan.
    – Elizabeth Weise and Nathan Bomey

    More coronavirus news and information from USA TODAY

    NYC funeral home stored bodies in moving trucks

    Police were called to a New York City funeral home that was storing bodies on ice in rented trucks after a a passerby complained about the smell, authorities said.
    A law enforcement official speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said that about 50 corpses were found in the four trucks outside Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
    No criminal charges were brought, and workers in protective gear were seen transferring the bodies from the rented trucks to a larger refrigerated truck, obtained later in the day. The funeral home was cited for failing to control the odors.

    Jared Kushner: Government's response to coronavirus 'great success story'

    White House senior adviser Jared Kushner called the federal government's response to the coronavirus outbreak "a great success story” on Wednesday as cases topped 1 million and the death toll passed 60,000 in the United States. 
    Kushner, the president's son-in-law who has been serving on the White House coronavirus task force, doesn't often make public appearances. During an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, Kushner said, "I think that we've achieved all the different milestones that are needed. So the government, federal government, rose to the challenge and this is a great success story. I think that's really what needs to be told." He also claimed that by June "a lot of the country should be back to normal," and that by July, "the country's really rocking again."
    Researchers at Harvard University recently concluded the U.S. would need to conduct 500,000 to 700,000 coronavirus tests a day to begin reopening safely. Last week the country averaged 210,000 daily tests, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
    – Savannah Behrmann

    Trump's meat order brings anxiety to COVID-stricken Iowa town

    Local officials worry that President Donald Trump's executive order requiring meatpacking plants to remain open could threaten the health of 2,800 workers at the Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa, that closed last week because of a COVID-19 outbreak.
    But pork producers say the president's action provides "hope and relief" for farmers who face destroying thousands of pigs backed up on farms as the coronavirus has slowed and closed meatpacking processing plants across the country.
    The conflict between the president, meat processors and local officials has been brewing for weeks, as the number of positive virus tests among meatpacking employees has shot up. As the workers have gotten sick, companies have shut down massive plants, raising supply chain fears.
    About 90% of the 1,326 people testing positive for COVID-19 in Black Hawk County, Iowa, are tied to the Tyson pork processing plant, health officials have said. Thirteen people in the county have died from the coronavirus.
    Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart said he hopes Tyson and other companies that have closed plants "aren't forced to open" before putting the necessary safety precautions in place to protect workers. State Rep. Ras Smith said it had only been a week since the Tyson plant in closed, and COVID-19 testing for employees was not complete.
    – Donnelle Eller and Barbara Rodriguez

    Costco returning to normal hours, but face masks required

    Costco plans to return to normal operating hours next week but customers and employees alike will be required to wear face-coverings or masks.
    The requirement does not apply to children under the age of 2 or to people who are unable to wear a mask or face covering due to a medical condition, according to a Costco statement. Select Costco warehouses will also be open from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., Monday through Friday, for members ages 60 and older and people with disabilities.
    – Coral Murphy

    Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces free testing for all residents

    Hours after Los Angeles County reported its greatest surge in new coronavirus cases, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced free testing would be available for all residents in the city and county.
    "While priority will still be given to those with symptoms, individuals without symptoms can also be tested," Garcetti said on Twitter, directing people to sign up at Coronavirus.LACity.org/Testing. He touted Los Angeles as the "first major city in America" to open free COVID-19 testing to all residents.
    There were 1,541 new confirmed cases on Wednesday in Los Angeles County, nearly 1,000 more than on Tuesday, the county's public health department announced. Los Angeles' death toll of 1,056 as of Wednesday night is the highest of any city in the western United States.
    – Steve Kiggins

    NYC docs see strokes in young people who had mild coronavirus symptoms

    New York City doctors say the coronavirus is triggering a surge in strokes in younger patients, causing alarm among medical experts. Over a two-week period, Mount Sinai doctors reported five patients under the age of 50 who suffered large vessel strokes, according to a letter they published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
    All five patients tested positive for COVID-19 but had very mild to no symptoms. Dr. J Mocco, director of the Cerebrovascular Center at Mount Sinai and one of the letter’s authors, said these stroke patients in New York were 15 years younger than the normal stroke population, had no risk factors and were statistically more likely to be male.
    “That creates a big alarm,” Mocco said. “Our spider sense goes up to say that there’s something not right here.”
    – Adrianna Rodriguez

    More coronavirus headlines from USA TODAY

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