Coronavirus Watch: Reopening the economy

President Donald Trump issued guidelines to states yesterday aimed at easing social distancing restrictions and reopening parts of the country.

The guidelines include three phases but won't begin until states have had 14 consecutive days of decreases in COVID-19 cases and have testing and hospital capacity to deal with potential coronavirus spikes.

Phase One suggests: 

• Requiring vulnerable individuals to continue sheltering in place.
• Practicing physical distancing in public, avoiding socializing in groups of more than 10 people.
• Minimizing nonessential travel and continuing to encourage telework.
• Keeping shuttered schools closed.
• Prohibiting nursing home and hospital visits.
• Resuming elective surgeries on an outpatient basis.
• Keeping bars closed, but allowing gyms to open under physical distancing and sanitation protocols.

Read more about the subsequent phases here.

It's Friday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network.

Here's the latest news, as of 1:45 p.m. ET:

• The U.S. reported more than 4,500 deaths yesterday – the nation's most fatalities in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. The jump may be due to the fact that the CDC began including both confirmed and "probable" coronavirus cases in its overall count earlier this week.
• More than 672,000 people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus, and more than 33,000 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins.  See a map of confirmed cases here.
• China added 1,290 deaths from the virus in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, bringing the city's total to 3,869. China blamed its initial undercount on its overwhelmed health system.
• New York City is expected to cancel concerts and all other nonessential events through May – and is considering doing the same for June.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in effect rejected the Trump administration guidelines giving states the responsibility for testing, saying the states have neither the ability to obtain the necessary testing materials nor the money to carry it out.
• Beaches in Jacksonville, Florida, will open today for limited periods in the morning and evening for "essential activities," including walking and biking.
• Stocks jumped at the opening of trading as investors rally around signs that more governments are planning phased re-openings of their economies. Sign up for The Daily Money here.
• About 14% of the U.S. workforce has filed for unemployment in the past month. In Hawaii, Michigan and Rhode Island, more than 20% of the state's workforce has filed for unemployment. See more below.

As always, thank you for subscribing and trusting the Paste BN Network with this important information. 

— Grace Hauck, Breaking News Reporter, @grace_hauck