Today’s coronavirus update: Task force back on; theft and murder in a pandemic

May 6, 2020

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The coronavirus task force is back on!

President Trump said Wednesday that the White House’s team for combating the virus will “continue on indefinitely” — a day after he and Vice President Mike Pence said the group will begin to wind down.

The team will now focus more on rebooting the economy, as well as vaccines and therapeutics, Trump said.

Here’s what else we learned today:

New York crisis:

Hospitalizations and the number of patients in ICU went up Wednesday in the Big Apple, showing the city has “got some more work to do,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
This as the mayor announced he’ll have to start furloughing or laying off essential workers if New York doesn’t receive an influx of federal funds — a proposition slammed by other city leaders.
64 children in the state have now been hospitalized with a rare, life-threatening inflammatory illness linked to the virus.
Subway trains were shut down overnight for the first time in 115 years so they could be disinfected — here’s how the unprecedented closure went.

Britain now has more coronavirus deaths than any other country in Europe, passing Italy for the first time since the pandemic took hold.
French citizens are being asked to fulfill their patriotic duty — and eat more cheese to help the dairy industry.
Students in Wuhan, China’s virus epicenter, went back to class wearing masks and undergoing thermal scans.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US government had not confirmed that a lab in Wuhan, China, accidentally released the virus.
China’s UN ambassador said the country won’t allow international experts to investigate the source of the outbreak until there’s a “final victory” in the fight against the virus — while it’s ambassador to the US wants American politicians to stop blaming Beijing for the pandemic.
As many as 100 companies want to ditch China for India because of the virus, according to an Indian official.

A New York City-based gay porn star is under fire for allegedly attending a packed party in flagrant disregard of social distancing guidelines.
The scientist who convinced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to shut down the country resigned from his post — after he was caught violating social-distancing rules by meeting up with his married lover.

A suspected masked burglar stole from dozens of stores in NYC.DCPI

Thieves in New Zealand took advantage of the strict restrictions to break into a car rental company and drive off with almost 100 vehicles.
A married coronavirus researcher “on the verge” of a breakthrough was killed in a suspected murder-suicide in Pennsylvania.
In New York, a masked thief hit nearly two dozen businesses amid the pandemic, and a ham-handed crook was caught stealing nearly $200 worth of meat from a butcher.
Also, here’s how drug dealers, mobsters and terrorists are fighting the coronavirus.

Baseball started up again… in South Korea, and with an unusual socially-distanced first pitch.
Starbucks plans to reopen 85 percent of its locations by the end of the week.
And was January’s “plague” at the Sundance Film Festival really the coronavirus? Read more here.

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