Republicans pick Jacksonville, Florida, as convention site

Survivors of COVID-19 are donating their blood plasma in droves in hopes it helps other patients recover from the coronavirus. And while the jury’s still out, now scientists are testing if the donations might also prevent infection in the first place.

Thousands of coronavirus patients in hospitals around the world have been treated with so-called convalescent plasma — including more than 20,000 in the U.S. — with little solid evidence so far that it makes a difference. One recent study from China was unclear while another from New York offered a hint of benefit.

“We have glimmers of hope,” said Dr. Shmuel Shoham of Johns Hopkins University.

With more rigorous testing of plasma treatment underway, Shoham is launching a nationwide study asking the next logical question: Could giving survivors plasma right after a high-risk exposure to the virus stave off illness?

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The United States may see coronavirus cases increase in the coming weeks as states continue to reopen and Americans gather together, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, in a warning that underscored protective measures must accompany a return to daily life.

"Every activity that involves interacting with others has some degree of risk right now," Dr. Jay Butler, the leader of the CDC's COVID-19 response, said during a briefing.

"It’s important to remember the situation is unprecedented and the pandemic is ongoing," he said.

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In mid-March, as coronavirus cases started their sharp climb in the United States, many Americans appeared to have one thing in mind before hunkering down: Buy toilet paper. Lots of it.

But not everyone grabbed every roll in sight, and research published Friday in the journal Plos One offers insights into why some people scrambled for toilet paper while others held back.

The study looked at whether different personality traits were associated with toilet paper hoarding, and found stockpilers tended to be more anxious and fearful about the coming health threat compared with those who didn’t load up on the product.

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The Department of Transportation plans to distribute nearly 100 million masks for passenger use, the department announced in a news release Friday.

About 86.8 million cloth facial coverings will be distributed to airports, and 9.6 million coverings will be distributed to 458 transit agencies and Amtrak. 

“This Administration is committed to protecting our people and reopening the economy; distributing these facial coverings will help boost public confidence as we begin to resume our normal lives,” Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said.

Florida on Friday set another record for new cases of COVID-19 with 1,902, according to numbers released by the state health department.

This marks the second consecutive day of the state logging another record high, with 1,698 new cases reported on Thursday.

The Sunshine State has reported more than 70,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,877 deaths.

Amy Arlund, an intensive care unit nurse in California, starts every overnight shift hoping her supervisors will give her a fresh N95 respirator.

“You are asked to reuse them for weeks on end,” Arlund, 45, told NBC News. “You have to justify to your manager repeatedly why you need a new one.”

Nearly 100 days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, health care workers across the country are still facing major shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, including crucial equipment such as masks, gowns, gloves and N95 respirators. Amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases across the United States, the situation is especially dire at hospitals serving communities of color or patients on Medicaid, NBC News has found.

"The issue of PPE for health workers has not gone away," Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, said Wednesday at a news briefing.

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At a briefing this week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy touted his state's efforts to trace the spread of the coronavirus, outlining plans to hire 1,600 contact tracers who will call people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Not part of his plan: a smartphone app to help with contact tracing.

"The state of New Jersey is neither pursuing nor promoting exposure notification or digital alerting technology, at least at this time," Murphy said.

New Jersey isn't alone. States that had committed to using contact tracing apps or expressed interest are now backing away from those claims. The few states that have rolled them out have seen only tepid responses. And there are no indications of any momentum for the apps at a national level.

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The return to school of Beijing students in years 1, 2 and 3 has been delayed after two new coronavirus infections were diagnosed in China’s capital. The students were scheduled to return to school this coming Monday.

Students who already returned to class will remain in school, the government said.

The two coronavirus cases, which are believed to have been transmitted in China rather than from abroad, were isolated and treated in Beijing coronavirus hospitals. On Thursday, China reported 11 newly confirmed cases across the country, but they all came from outside the country. 

Millions of children around the world are at risk of being pushed into child labor due to the coronavirus crisis, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization and UNICEF.

The report warns that the difficult economic situation in many countries could lead to the first rise in child labour after 20 years of progress.

“In times of crisis, child labor becomes a coping mechanism for many families,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, in a press release. “As poverty rises, schools close and the availability of social services decreases, more children are pushed into the workforce. As we re-imagine the world post-COVID, we need to make sure that children and their families have the tools they need to weather similar storms in the future.”

Despite lifting Moscow's strict lockdown on Tuesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents not to attend events scheduled for two upcoming national holidays. 

"I would not recommend going anywhere during these holidays, we still have banned public events," he said on state television on Thursday. "Yes, official events will be held... but its better to watch on TV."

Moscow suddenly lifted its lockdown Tuesday after more than two months. Officials signaled that residents can return to normal life, though public events and mass gatherings remain off limits. Despite this ban on public events, the government has organized a concert on Red Square on Friday for the June 12th Russia Day holiday, and it plans to hold a massive military parade on June 24th.

Amy Arlund, an intensive care unit nurse in California, starts every overnight shift hoping her supervisors will give her a fresh N95 respirator.

“You are asked to reuse them for weeks on end,” Arlund, 45, told NBC News. “You have to justify to your manager repeatedly why you need a new one.”

Nearly 100 days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, health care workers across the country are still facing major shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, including crucial equipment such as masks, gowns, gloves and N95 respirators. Amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases across the United States, the situation is especially dire at hospitals serving communities of color or patients on Medicaid, NBC News has found.

Read the full story here.

South Korea will extend prevention and sanitation guidelines against the coronavirus until daily new infections drop to single digits, the health minister said on Friday, failing which he warned of a return to tough social distancing measures.

The announcement came as such cases persist in the mid-double digits following a series of new clusters in the area around Seoul, the capital, with 56 new cases on Thursday taking the national tally to 12,003, and 277 deaths.

Authorities will review whether to return to intensive social distancing if 50 daily infections persist for more than two weeks, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing. More than 96% of new infections were in the Seoul metropolitan area in the last two weeks, he added. Of Thursday's new cases, 42 were from the Seoul area.

The British economy has seen nearly two decades worth of growth wiped out in a single month as a result of the lockdown measures put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics said Friday that the economy shrank by a colossal 20.4% in April, the first full month that the country was under lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. All areas of the economy were hit during the month, in particular pubs, education, health and car sales.

The monthly decline was unprecedented in scale and, adding the more modest 5.8% decline in March, means the U.K. economy is around 25% smaller than it was in February.

With much of the economy still mothballed in May and June, the U.K. is heading for one of its deepest recessions ever — the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that the country is set to be the hardest-hit developed economy this year.

Lockdown restrictions are slowly being eased, which should see the economy to start to pick up. On Monday, for example, nonessential shops, such as department stores and electronic retailers, can reopen if they can abide by social distancing requirements.

Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday signed an executive order that will remove many restrictions in Georgia next week on June 16, including allowing restaurants and movie theaters to no longer enforce maximums on the number of people who can sit together.

Also beginning on June 16:

• Bars can allow up to 50 people
• Residents 65 and older no longer have to shelter in place
• Gatherings may now include up to 50 people
• Professional, amateur, collegiate and high school sports can resume, but must follow health rules set by their respective leagues and organizations
• Walk-ins for barber shops, salons, tattoo parlors, massage parlor and tanning salons may resume

The order comes on the same day Georgia reported 993 new cases of coronavirus and 46 deaths.

U.S. stocks dropped sharply on Thursday as investors weighed sobering economic forecasts and new data, along with indications that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from subsiding.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1,861 points, or 6.9 percent, and the S&P 500 was down 5.9 percent, the biggest fall since March 16. Just a day before, the Nasdaq Composite hit an intraday high.

On Thursday, several sectors including hospitality and leisure suffered steep declines. As more than 20 states report a climb in coronavirus cases, there are new worries that consumers will be reluctant to return to restaurants and take trips.

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