Guidance on reopening houses of worship has been put on hold after a disagreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, a senior administration official confirmed.

The news was first reported by The Washington Post, which stated that the White House was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions.

"The CDC sometimes views things in an overly bureaucratic way. What we are trying to do is encourage a more federalist approach where each state is able to make decisions based on their own circumstances and individually tailored needs," the senior administration official told NBC News.

The CDC this week released recommendations for reopening restaurants, mass transit, schools and child care programs across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic.

There has been an ongoing struggle between the CDC and the White House over guidelines for reopening, with the White House expressing concerns that the CDC’s guidelines are too restrictive.

Read the full story here.

Over 100 members of Congress are calling on the Trump administration to collect information on the sexual orientations and gender identities of COVID-19 patients.

A letter addressed Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services said a failure to track demographic data about LGBTQ identities will "make it difficult for health care providers and policymakers to clearly identify and address the prevention and treatment needs" of the community during the pandemic. A lack of data on how COVID-19 affects LGBTQ people "will exacerbate the challenges that these populations are already experiencing during the COVID-19 public health emergency," it said.

"Like other marginalized groups, the LGBTQ community faces multiple health inequities," it read. "With scarce demographic information available about the LGBTQ population, it is difficult to provide quality care and solutions."

Read the full story here. 

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A member of the Illinois General Assembly was removed from the first gathering in 10 weeks after refusing to wear a face covering.

Republican Rep. Darren Bailey of Xenia, 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Chicago, voted “no” on a face-covering rule to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, which was adopted 97-12. Bailey said he was speaking for Illinois residents who feel “captive” and “burdened” by state-ordered restrictions on movement.

Bailey, who filed a legal challenge to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order, in effect since March 21, represents growing dissent to stay-at-home rules in central and southern parts of the state, which have had far fewer coronavirus infections than Chicago.

Pritzker, who later announced another 147 Illinois deaths related to COVID-19 at his daily briefing, said, “The representative has shown callous disregard for life, callous disregard for people’s health .... The representative has no interest in protecting others.”

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is returning to sea for a two-week mission, its first since being moored in Guam in late March following a coronavirus outbreak.

The Navy said that the aircraft carrier entered the Philippine Sea on Thursday local time "to conduct carrier qualification flights for Carrier Air Wing 11."

The Theodore Roosevelt, which has a crew of nearly 5,000, is underway with around 3,300 personnel on the mission, a Defense official said. Everyone aboard the ship was tested and enough personnel have been removed from quarantine to operate the vessel, the Navy said.

Read the full story.

A former White House butler who served 11 different presidents died at the age of 91 after contracting the coronavirus, his granddaughter told Fox 5 DC.

Wilson Roosevelt Jerman was one of the White House’s longest-serving employees, remembered fondly by former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday.

Read full story here. 

AUSTIN, Texas — A court ruling that paved the way in Texas for a dramatic expansion of mail-in voting over fears of the coronavirus is now on hold.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted Wednesday to temporarily put aside any expansion of mail-in voting while the case is under review. The order came less than 24 hours after a federal judge in San Antonio ruled that Texas must give all 16 million registered voters in the state the option of casting a ballot by mail during the pandemic.

The fight in Texas is one of several nationwide over expanding access to mail-in voting during the pandemic. Texas generally limits mail-in ballots to voters 65 or older, or those with a “sickness or physical condition.”

Republican Texas Attorney General Paxton has asserted that fear of getting the virus doesn’t qualify as a disability under the law.

WASHINGTON — It sounded like a great deal: The White House coronavirus task force would buy a defense company’s new cleaning machines to allow critical protective masks to be reused up to 20 times. And at $60 million for 60 machines on April 3, the price was right.

But over just a few days, the potential cost to taxpayers exploded to $413 million, according to notes of a coronavirus task force meeting obtained by NBC News. By May 1, the Pentagon pegged the ceiling at $600 million in a justification for awarding the deal without an open bidding process or an actual contract. Even worse, scientists and nurses say the recycled masks treated by these machines begin to degrade after two or three treatments, not 20, and the company says its own recent field testing has only confirmed the integrity of the masks for four cycles of use and decontamination.

Nurses in several places across the country now say they are afraid of being at greater risk of acquiring COVID-19 while using N95 masks, which they say often don’t fit correctly after just a few spins through a cleaning system that uses vapor phase hydrogen peroxide to disinfect them.

Read the full story here. 

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand’s prime minister wants employers to consider switching to a four-day work week as a way to promote tourism, which has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Jacinda Ardern said in a Facebook Live video this week that people had learned a lot about flexibility and working from home during the nation’s lockdown, which was eased last week.

New Zealand’s tourism industry had accounted for about 10% of the economy, but has ground to a halt during the outbreak.

The South Pacific nation’s borders remain closed, but Ardern said that as much as 60% of tourism was domestic and that more flexible working arrangements could allow New Zealanders to travel more within their own country.

Ardern said she would encourage employers to think about whether or not a four-day work week is something that would work for their workplace, “because it certainly would help tourism all around the country.”

Coronavirus is spreading faster in Brazil than anywhere else on Earth. Doctors at a disease control center say there’s so little testing, the real number of cases could be 15 times higher. President Jair Bolsonaro, when asked about the rising death toll, said he “can’t work miracles.”

California will roll out guidelines on Memorial Day for TV, film and commercials to resume production amid the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday on a call with entertainment industry leaders.

"We're in real time drafting guidelines related to productions … because we anticipate rolling out on Monday, May 25th, some sectoral guidelines that would allow these counties to begin to move forward and allow some modification, allow some work to be done, allow some movement in your industry," Newsom said.

Hollywood has been at a total standstill since mid-March when Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order. As a result, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and studios are scrambling to fill an unprecedented content demand from people binging shows and movies at home. 

Also on Wednesday, Tyler Perry unveiled a 30-page document for his plan to resume productions at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. He will require cast and crew members to be tested for coronavirus and self-isolate at home before traveling to Georgia, undergo social distancing as much as possible on set and not leave the "quarantine bubble" at any time for the designated two-week filming period.

"I want it to be abundantly clear that there was no way I could or would consider putting people back to work without a plan that takes extreme measures to try and mitigate as much risk as possible in our productions, and I think we’ve managed to do just that," Perry said in a letter to crew members.

When a grocery store was forced to close its signature salad bar to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus, some of its employees got creative and built an alcohol display in its wake.

"We had originally put out other fresh foods, but it didn't go over so well because everyone's been stressed out," said Rick Rodemacher, the store director of Dierbergs Markets' Manchester, Missouri location.

"A group of the employees were talking and we thought we could make good use of the empty space and make people smile if we swapped out the salad bar for one that serves alcohol."

Read the full story here. 

Highway fatality rates jumped 14 percent in March, even as U.S. roadways began emptying due to the near-nationwide coronavirus quarantine.

With significantly fewer vehicles on the road, the total number of deaths dropped an estimated 8 percent, but measured in terms of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven, the figure for March surged to 1.22 compared to 1.07 in March 2019, according to the National Safety Council.

Seven states posted double-digit increases, the NSC reported, with Connecticut seeing a 42 percent spike. Police across the U.S. have been reporting major increases in speeding citations and arrests, with fewer fender benders — but significant increases in severe crashes.

“People on the road have been getting the itch to drive faster,” said Susanna Gotsch, director of industry analysis for CCC Information Services, which consults with insurance companies on auto crashes.

Overall, total U.S. highway deaths rose 2 percent during the first quarter of 2019, according to the NSC.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Puerto Rican government over what the group called a pair of “fake news” laws that it says authorities can use to punish reporters covering the coronavirus pandemic.

The suit, brought in federal district court, was filed on behalf of two journalists, Sandra Rodríguez Cotto and Rafelli González-Cotto. Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced and other officials are named as defendants.

According to court documents, one of the provisions criminalizes raising “a false alarm” over an imminent catastrophe, during a state of emergency, or to “spread rumors” about “non-existing abnormalities.”

Read the full story here.

More than 100,000 coronavirus cases have been reported to the World Health Organization in the last 24 hours, "the most in a single day since the outbreak began," Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a news conference Wednesday.

"We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," he said. "In the last 24 hours, there have been 106,000 cases reported to WHO — the most in a single day since the outbreak began."

He added that almost "two-thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries," although he did not specify where the cases had been recorded.

The countries with the highest number of confirmed cases are the U.S., Russia, Brazil and the United Kingdom, according to the WHO.

Read the full story here. 

World War II veteran Tom Moore raised millions for the coronavirus-battling National Health Service, and has since been made an honorary colonel and member of the England cricket team.

Hundreds of protesters turned out to protest Michigan's stay-at-home order on Wednesday — and get free haircuts.

Toting signs that read "End tyranny," "Live free or die" and accused Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of "killing small businesses," demonstrators rallied outside of the state Capitol in Lansing as part of "Operation Haircut."

Several barbers were in attendance, giving free trims to demonstrators. Some of the barbers and protesters were not wearing face coverings. Many of the demonstrators also stood within 6 feet of one another as they waited for their cuts.

Read the full story here. 

Restaurants and bars should consider installing sneeze guards at their registers. Mass transit workers should close every other row of seats on their buses. Students should eat lunch in their classrooms instead of congregating in a cafeteria.

These are among the social distancing measures that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed in a document it quietly released on its website this week outlining recommendations for reopening restaurants, mass transit, schools and childcare programs across the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The detailed 60-page document was posted on the CDC’s website with no accompanying announcement from the public health agency, and comes weeks after many states have already ended or partially ended their lockdowns.

Read the full story here. 

In yet another sign of the times, the 47th annual Daytime Emmy Awards will go virtual this year.

Awards in leading categories will be presented June 26 on CBS with recipients and other special guests appearing from home. Additional categories will be announced simultaneously on Twitter and others will be presented in a separate ceremony in July. 

“In these challenging times, daytime has been a primary influence in staying connected with its audience, entertaining them and keeping them informed,” said David McKenzie, Daytime Emmys executive producer and director of Associated Television International. “We are honored to be a part of it. We are also excited for the challenge of introducing a new format that will celebrate the contributions of daytime television.”

Nominations will be announced Thursday, May 21, on CBS' "The Talk" and then online at Entertainment Tonight. 

Weeks after a draft of guidelines for reopening businesses across the U.S. were leaked from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the final plans have been released. 

The 60-page guidelines include details about what child care facilities, schools, restaurants and business need to do to keep people safe. Measures include cleaning and disinfection, social distancing, and monitoring for possible reemergence of infections. The document also includes criteria and thresholds for states to meet as they go through the three phases of reopening. 

Read the full CDC guidelines.

A Costco employee is being lauded online for his handling of an encounter with a customer who recorded himself berating the worker and refusing to wear a mask.

A video of the incident posted to Twitter on Monday has been viewed millions of times and highlights a reality for many retail workers who are having to enforce stores' rules and public health guidelines on masks. The original video was posted on Instagram before it was deleted.

Costco requires every employee and customer in its stores to wear a mask that covers the mouth and nose to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In the 37-second video, which has more than 6.8 million views, a customer who appears to be in a checkout line can be heard telling a Costco employee whose name tag says Tison, "I'll just put you on my 3,000-follower Instagram feed, mostly locals."

Read the full story here.

New York state hopes a public service announcement will encourage more residents to consistently wear face coverings when they are outside of their homes.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and daughter Mariah Kennedy-Cuomo unveiled five finalist videos out of several hundred submissions, with the winner to be selected through online voting.

Balloting in the "Wear a Mask New York Ad Contest" runs from now until Monday, and the chosen ad will be announced Tuesday.

Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, a staffer on the committee told NBC News.

She is expected to brief the panel on her office’s work on coronavirus and other aspects of the administration's response to the pandemic.

In early April, Grimm presented President Donald Trump with a report showing that hospitals responding to the pandemic were lacking vital medical equipment including thermometers and test kits.

Trump criticized Grimm in a tweet and then eventually nominated a new IG to replace her. Grimm was not fired and remains in a senior role at the IGs office.

The committee notes this will take the form of a briefing and not a hearing. It will also take place entirely remote over video conference.

New York City's low-income neighborhoods with large minority populations have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, state officials said Wednesday.

Based on 8,000 antibody tests administered recently in the city, 19.9 percent came up positive, indicating infections, with several neighborhoods outside Manhattan showing higher-than-average rates, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference.

The Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx showed an infection rate of 43 percent; Brownsville, Brooklyn,  41 percent; the East Bronx, 38 percent; and the Hollis neighborhood in Queens, 35 percent, the state found.

"Focus on low-income communities, do the testing and do the outreach," Cuomo said. "That’s where the cases are coming from. ... That's where you're going to see the highest number of deaths."  

The State Department announced on Wednesday that the U.S. government has pledged an additional $162 million in foreign aid to fight the coronavirus, bringing the total to more than $1 billion.

The new funding will continue to support hygiene, sanitation and safe water, but for the first time will also pay for emergency food assistance, since the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global food supply chains.

A law school graduate found a creative way to celebrate her graduation, even though the in-person ceremony was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Alexandra Lenczewski, a Brooklyn Law School class of 2020 graduate, held a mini commencement ceremony in her backyard with photos of every member of the graduating class, complete with caps on their heads. The students were even arranged in alphabetical order, according to the Instagram post.

“Outstanding! And congratulations!” Brooklyn Law School Dean Michael T. Cahill wrote in a retweet of the video.

More than 100,000 cases have been reported to the World Health Organization in 24 hours, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said during a news conference Wednesday.

"We still have a long way to go in this pandemic," he said. "In the last 24 hours, there have been 106,000 cases reported to WHO — the most in a single day since the outbreak began."

He added that almost "two thirds of these cases were reported in just four countries," although he did not specify where the cases had been recorded. 

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal funding for Michigan and Nevada over their pursuit of mass mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The president said, falsely, that Michigan is sending absentee ballots to 7.7 million voters, following that with a warning to Nevada if it pursues voting by mail. The president said Michigan's action was done “illegally and without authorization from a rogue secretary of state.”

Michigan's secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said Tuesday that all of those registered voters will be mailed applications for absentee ballots for the state’s elections in August and November — not the absentee ballots themselves.

Nevada, meanwhile, is planning an all-mail vote for its state primary in June.

Read the full story here.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday urged residents to participate in the U.S. census as the city lags behind the rest of the country.

Only 49 percent of New York City households have responded to the once-every-decade national population count, in comparison with a 59 percent average response rate across the U.S.

"The census says how many members of Congress you get. The census says how much [federal] funding you get" for the city, de Blasio said. "If it’s not accurate, you literally can lose a member of the Congress; you can lose billions, many billions of dollars." 

The mayor said he recognized that the national survey comes as the city copes with the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the metropolitan area harder than anywhere in the U.S.

"The 2020 census will have so much to say about the future of this city, and it’s being attempted against the backdrop of the biggest crisis we’ve dealt with in generations, and we’re the epicenter. So we’re really up against a wall here yet again, and we've got to find a way forward, and quickly," de Blasio said.

The census has no questions about immigration or citizenship. It can be completed in under five minutes at 2020census.gov.

A small study published Wednesday in the journal Science offers promising evidence to suggest that recovery from COVID-19 could lead to immunity against reinfection.

The study, from researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, involved nine rhesus macaques — monkeys that share a majority of their genes with humans. The macaques were infected with the coronavirus and later recovered — and more than one month later, they were re-exposed to the virus.

All of the macaques had developed antibodies against the virus, the researchers found, and had "near-complete protection" against the virus when they were re-exposed — a sign that they had developed immunity.

Still, more research is needed to determine whether the findings also apply to humans, as well as to determine how long this immunity may last. 

Egypt will require people to wear masks in workplaces and in stores from the end of May after the country recorded 720 new cases in one day this week, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Tuesday.

As of May 30, people in Egypt will be required to cover their nose and mouths at work and in stores, and those flouting the rules will face a fine of the equivalent of $255, Madbouly said. Air traffic will also be suspended, he added. 

The measures will be reviewed after two weeks.

 

China has launched a Twitter offensive in the COVID-19 information war, more than doubling its number of official government tweets since January and in recent days using the platform to spread a conspiracy theory that the virus came from a U.S. government lab.

"The #US keeps calling for transparency & investigation. Why not open up Fort Detrick & other bio-labs for international review? Why not invite #WHO & int'l experts to the US to look into #COVI19 source & response?" the spokesperson for China's Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote in a May 8 tweet that has been liked more than 4,000 times. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is where the military houses and researches infectious diseases.

The Chinese have pushed out 90,000 tweets since the start of April from 200 diplomatic and state-run media accounts as part of an offensive in the COVID-19 information war, according to data collected by the Hamilton 2.0 dashboard of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a tool that aggregates accounts connected to the Chinese government.

Read the full story here.

The 100-year-old hero fundraiser, Capt. Tom Moore, has been awarded a knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II after raising nearly $40 million for Britain's National Health Service by walking laps of his garden. The World War II veteran was nominated for the honor by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and it was subsequently approved by the queen. 

Although he can take the title of Capt. Sir Thomas Moore immediately, it's unclear how the honor will be presented due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Recipients typically attend an investiture at Buckingham Palace in person. Traditionally, a knight kneels before the queen — or another senior royal — and has a sword placed on the right, then the left shoulder. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed to NBC News that they plan to discuss "potential arrangements" with the family.

Writing on Twitter, Moore said he was "absolutely overwhelmed" to receive the honor. 

All 50 states are now to some extent lifting the lockdown measures imposed to suppress the coronavirus pandemic. Connecticut was the last state with a state-wide stay-at-home order in place, but that expired Wednesday.

As this NBC News interactive map shows, the only place not lifting its lockdown in some way is Washington, D.C., where the stay-at-home order runs through June 8. Health officials say contact tracing is a crucial in preventing a virus flare-up after this wave of reopenings.

But some agencies are wrestling with a lack of necessary resources from the federal government, as well as a need for more qualified workers and a growing backlash of misinformation.

Confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia surpassed 300,000 on Wednesday, but there is some hope found in the official data: daily case growth nationwide fell to 8,764 cases, suggesting a solidified downward trend.

However, the decline in new cases continues to be focused in Moscow, where fewer than 3,000 were reported. Outside Moscow, daily new cases continue to inch higher to more than 6,000 for the first time. 

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has cautioned that the capital is not yet out of the woods. Some 18,000 COVID-19 patients remain in critical condition in Moscow, he said Tuesday evening.  

Coronavirus has resulted in the cancellation of many of Europe's big events, but the largest consumer electronics show, the IFA, has said that it will indeed take place in Berlin this September in a format that puts "health and safety first." 

The event will take place over three days from September 3, with a strict limit of 1,000 attendees per day. 

“After all the event cancellations during the past months, our industry urgently needs a platform where it can showcase its innovation, so that it can recover and rebound," said Jens Heithecker, the Executive Director of IFA Berlin.

Brazil's daily death toll from the coronavirus jumped to a record 1,179 as President Donald Trump said he is considering a travel ban.

The highest daily toll before Tuesday had been 881 deaths on May 12. The pandemic has killed at least 17,971 people in Brazil, according to the Health Ministry.

Brazil overtook Britain on Monday to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed infections, behind Russia and the United States. Brazil's confirmed cases also jumped by a record 17,408 on Tuesday, for a total of 271,628 people who have tested positive for the virus.

Remember how dining out used to be — the dim light, the flickering candle, the cozy corner, the romance? Well, as the poet Robert Graves wrote following a previous cataclysm — World War I — "Goodbye to all that."

As restaurateurs seek to attract customers, the use of enticing words such as "intimate," "cozy" and maybe even "atmospheric" may fall by the wayside.

They'll likely be replaced by words such as "bright," "clean," "spacious" and — who knows? — maybe even "sterile." Not the most romantic of words, but there are lives at stake.

Read the full story here.

Alaska's governor announced Tuesday that all businesses and other activities will be allowed to fully reopen Friday, although some local governments might not do so right away.

Bars, gyms and other businesses have already been cleared to reopen although with reduced capacities. The new order will lift those capacity limits.

"It'll all be open, just like it was prior to the virus," Gov. Mike Dunleavy said, noting that Alaskans are still being asked to keep 6 feet apart, wear masks, wash hands and surfaces, and stay home and get tested if feeling sick.

Dunleavy said Tuesday that over the last 24 hours, no new cases and no new deaths were reported and that more than 36,300 tests have been done. 

Alaska has seen 399 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths, according to the state health department. 

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after opening fire on a Waffle House employee who told him he needed to wear a mask, authorities in Colorado said.

He was arrested Monday. The attack happened early Friday at a restaurant in the Denver suburb of Aurora, police said in a statement. Officers responding to a report of a fight and possible shooting found the employee with a gunshot wound, the Aurora Police Department said.

"The victim was transported to the hospital and is recovering from his injury," police said.

Read the full story here. 

U.S. births continued to fall last year, leading to the fewest number of newborns in 35 years.

The decline is the latest sign of a prolonged national “baby bust” that’s been going on for more than a decade. And some experts believe the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the economy will suppress the numbers further.

“This unpredictable environment, and anxiety about the future, is going to make women think twice about having children,” said Dr. Denise Jamieson, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University.

Read the full story here.