Norway's Minister for Transport Knut Arild Hareide celebrated the completion of a construction project on Wednesday by cutting the ceremonial ribbon via video conference. 

Speaking from his office in Oslo over 200 miles away, Hareide ate a slice of celebratory cake before cutting a ribbon that he had taped to his wall to officially open the country's long-awaited Ryfast sub-sea tunnel system. 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday, a week before many are due to pay rent on the first of the month, that further steps need to be taken to relieve New Yorkers from the financial burden of paying their landlords during and after the coronavirus crisis. 

"We need to make sure that every New Yorker can stay in their home during this crisis," de Blasio said during his daily briefing. "We need to keep a roof over everyone’s head."

The mayor called for a rent freeze and state approval to allow tenants to pay their rents with their security deposits, which he has been advocating for in past weeks. He also said he wants state approval to allow tenants who have to miss rent to repay over the span of a year, and for the eviction moratorium to be extended 60 days beyond the end of the crisis.

On March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a 90-day eviction moratorium for residential and commercial tenants.

The number of deaths in the United States tied to COVID-19 topped 50,000 early Friday, according to a tally compiled by NBC News.

Meanwhile, the total number of cases in the U.S. neared 90,000.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly told Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp that they approved of his aggressive plan to allow businesses to reopen, just a day before Trump pulled an about-face and publicly bashed the plan, according to two administration officials.

The green light from Pence and Trump came in separate private conversations with the Republican governor both before Kemp announced his plan to ease coronavirus restrictions and after it was unveiled on Monday, the officials said. Trump’s sudden shift came only after top health advisers reviewed the plan more closely and persuaded the president that Kemp was risking further spread of the virus by moving too quickly.

“I told the governor of Georgia Brian Kemp that I disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities,” Trump said Wednesday, just a day after telling reporters that he trusted Kemp’s judgment. “He knows what’s he’s doing.”

On Thursday, he was even harder on the governor: “I wasn’t happy with Brian Kemp, I wasn’t at all happy.”

Read the full story here.

The White House claimed Friday morning that the media was mischaracterizing Trump's comments suggesting exploring disinfectants as a possible treatment for coronavirus infections 

"President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. "Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines."

Trump's comments at his daily news briefing on Thursday came after a Homeland Security official mentioned the ability of disinfectants like bleach to kill the coronavirus on surfaces.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" Trump said. "Because, you see, it gets on the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that. So that you're going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds — it sounds interesting to me."

The manufacturer of Lysol, Trump's own EPA warned against ingesting disinfectants, and medical experts quickly warned that doing so could be fatal.

See more compelling photos in the Week in Pictures as people all over the world grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday cautioned against prescribing hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients outside of hospital settings or clinical trials. The drug, an antimalarial, was repeatedly touted by President Donald Trump as a possible treatment for the coronavirus.

"The FDA is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin," the FDA wrote on its website.

"We are also aware of increased use of these medicines through outpatient prescriptions. Therefore, we would like to remind health care professionals and patients of the known risks associated with both hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine," the FDA said.

Read more here.

Unfounded and harmful coronavirus treatments — including those that were floated by President Donald Trump — continue to spread online, evading efforts to crack down on misinformation.

Read the full story here.

The southern German state of Bavaria announced on Friday that it will involve prisoners in the production of face masks in an effort to continue in curbing the coronavirus.  

Officials bought 65 modern high-speed sewing machines on short notice and redesigned existing workplaces in the correctional facilities for mask production, the Bavarian Justice ministry said in a press release. 

The plan for the prisoners — who will sew rubber strands onto mask blanks — will create 1.6 million masks per year, the ministry said. Germany is the fifth-worst-hit country in the world, with more than 150,000 reported cases as of Friday.