Coronavirus updates: Texas to lift restrictions this week, SF extends shelter in place through May

The coverage on this live blog has ended — but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus outbreak, visit the live blog from CNBC's Asia-Pacific team.

Health experts and asset markets are watching closely as segments of the U.S. reopen their economies. Across the Atlantic, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is back at work after recovering from the virus, delivering a sober address about the nation's progress in fighting the Covid-19 outbreak. 

All times below are in Eastern time.

• Global cases: More than 3 million
• Global deaths: At least 208,131
• US cases: More than 985,300
• US deaths: At least 55,906

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Harvard will reopen for the fall semester, but some or all classes will continue to be held online, Alan Garber, the university's provost said in an open letter. 

"Harvard will be open for fall 2020," Garber wrote in the email sent to students, warning that the school will not be able to resume all usual activities. "Consequently, we will need to prepare for a scenario in which much or all learning will be conducted remotely." Garber wrote that he hopes to return students to campus as soon as possible, but that the fall semester may begin "remotely."

Criteria that Harvard is looking at includes whether "further waves of outbreak are unlikely," according to the letter. "If our community has not developed sufficient levels of immunity through recovery from the disease or vaccination, and if safe and effective antiviral therapy is not available, we will likely need adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, reliable and convenient viral testing, robust contact tracing procedures, and facilities for quarantine and isolation," Garber wrote. Schools around the country are grappling with the question of whether to re-open for the fall semester after classes at most U.S. schools were cancelled in March and moved online in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. —Kif Leswing

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said Monday they will require thousands of employees to wear face masks and provide masks for passengers, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Airline labor unions have repeatedly demanded stronger protections against coronavirus. While air travel in the U.S. is down some 95% from a year ago because of the virus and stay-at-home orders around the world, flight crews have raised concerns about catching the virus on the job and have sought federally mandated procedures.

American said next month it will start handing out face masks and sanitizing wipes for passengers and require that its roughly 30,000 mainline and regional flight attendants wear masks while on duty. —Leslie Josephs

While states prepare to open their economies at different rates, a CNBC analysis of how the country closed down finds the nation shuttered virtually as one.

Whether the state voted red or blue in 2016, whether it is run by a Republican or Democratic governor, or even whether it's in the South or Northeast, the data shows historic economic shutdown from the coronavirus took hold in mid-March at roughly the same pace across the nation.

CNBC analyzed state and national data from Yelp of restaurant, food establishments, bars and other nightlife locations. Yelp's data is drawn from its 36 million unique app users on average each month and 205 million reviews.

About 52,000 such businesses were closed throughout the country as of April 26, according to the Yelp data. It's up 17% from a week earlier, showing the closings continued to increase even as of Sunday, despite talk of a potential easing of restrictions this week in some states.

The data show the shutdown began in earnest on March 16 when 789 businesses were closed nationwide. —Steve Liesman

Hot dog and restaurant company Nathan's Famous said that it received a $1.2 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and will return the money, according to an SEC filing.

The company said it was granted the loan on April 21, according to the 8-K. Nathan's said it applied before new guidance from the federal government strongly discouraged public companies from filing for the loans.

As a result of the new guidance, "the company has determined to repay and return the entire amount of the PPP loan to the lender." The move makes Nathan's the latest in a stream of publicly traded companies to announce plans to return the loan money. —Jennifer Schlesinger

Boeing said that it plans to reopen its Dreamliner factory in South Carolina in early May after it shut down operations there for nearly a month because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Workers started returning last week to the company's Seattle-area plants, home to the majority of Boeing's airplane production, taking new precautions such as increased physical distance between employees, after it announced the temporary shut down last month. 

Boeing said it has increased cleaning throughout the North Charleston, South Carolina, facility, added hand sanitizing stations and will encourage workers to bring and wear cloth masks or other face coverings. "Some teammates will be required to wear procedural masks, which will be provided, in certain areas when working in close proximity," the company said. 

It will also have voluntary temperature screening for workers using no-touch thermal scanners. —Leslie Josephs

Smaller classes and mandatory face masks are likely to be part of Purdue University's plans to return students to campus this fall, Mitch Daniels, its president, told CNBC. 

"You can expect smaller numbers in every context," Daniels said on "Power Lunch." "I know we're looking for ways to reduce the size of classes, obviously keeping distance between people. Probably going to see masks as a requirement, at least for a long time here." 

Daniels, the former two-term Republican governor of Indiana, where Purdue is located, said the university also would likely forgo the large events "that enliven life" on campus such as "lectures and guest speakers and convocations of that kind." 

"All those things and many more, changes to our physical facilities, for instance, will be necessary for us to conclude that we are safe," Daniels said. "We won't move forward unless we believe that, but to get to that point, we have to get going now." —Kevin Stankiewicz

Washingtonians will be able to get some fresh air soon at state parks and public lands, Governor Jay Inslee announced on Monday.

The state, one of the early Covid-19 hotspots in the U.S., will reopen outdoor recreation, including state parks, hunting and fishing areas, including golf courses on May 5. People enjoying outdoor recreation are still expected to socially distance properly and wear masks, the governor said. Inslee warned that the decision could reverse if the situation gets worse in the state, based on data.

"This is not a return to normal today," Inslee said. Washington State's stay-home order remains in effect until May 4. —Kif Leswing

U.S. stock futures opened flat in overnight trading, following a rally in the previous session as plans to ease coronavirus-induced lockdowns fueled investor appetite for riskier assets. 

Dow futures fell 30 points, indicating a loss of 0.17% at the open on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also set to open lower, with losses of 0.18% and 0.2%, respectively.

A partial reopening of the economy — in Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and others — is boosting investor sentiment, with certain U.S. businesses poised to benefit from the first wave of consumers emerging from the coronavirus driven quarantine. 

Dow futures fell 30 points, indicating a loss of 0.17% at the open on Tuesday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were also set to open lower, with losses of 0.18% and 0.2%, respectively.

A partial reopening of the economy — in Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and others — is boosting investor sentiment, with certain U.S. businesses poised to benefit from the first wave of consumers emerging from the coronavirus driven quarantine. —Maggie Fitzgerald

The Trump administration unveiled a new strategy Monday to help states ramp up their capacity to test for coronavirus, claiming most of its work is done, according to new documents.

The two documents obtained by NBC News include a testing "overview" and a testing "blueprint."

The first document, the testing overview, largely serves as a defense of the administration's widely criticized handling of the coronavirus testing since the start of the epidemic. It outlines eight responsibilities that it says belong to the federal government, and claims to have already completed seven of these.

The other document, a testing "blueprint," describes what it calls a "partnership" between states, the federal government and the private sector. The partnership it describes leaves the lion's share of responsibility for funding, designing and executing a coronavirus testing plan to individual states. —Christina Wilkie, Kevin Breunninger

As some states start to reopen businesses and lift lockdowns, the need for testing has become a focal point and retailers are touting renewed efforts to speed that along.

CVS Health, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid and Kroger are among the companies that joined President Donald Trump late Monday at the White House to announce the next phase of coronavirus testing. The company's leaders spoke at the podium in the Rose Garden about their plans to add new sites and increase access, especially in underserved communities and among employers trying to get back to work.

The companies laid out plans to open additional sites — but some cautioned their timing and ability to ramp-up will depend on having adequate supplies and lab capacity. —Melissa Repko

Florida's Miami-Dade and Broward Counties will be opening parks, waterways and golf courses Wednesday, according to both county mayors. Each mayor held a press conference Monday to announce the re-openings.

"These openings will assist in helping our residents with their physical well-being as well as their mental well-being," Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said at his briefing.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said at his press conference that the openings should not be considered business as usual." The parks, waterways and golf courses will be used in limited ways that require everyone to take personal responsibility and act as if they have the coronavirus," Gimenez said. The reopening of these recreational areas comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis faced criticism for making certain beaches accessible to the public again on April 17. —Hannah Miller

The NBA has pushed back plans that would allow teams to reopen their practice facilities for at least one week, and cautioned that the new target is far from set in stone.

The earliest that teams can reopen for voluntary player workouts is now May 8, the NBA said Monday — and that would only be the case in places where local and state laws made such a move permissible.

And when those facilities are open, the rules will be very different: A person with direct knowledge of the league's plans told The Associated Press that players will have to wear face masks when in the facility, except when they are actually working out. Staff members would have to wear face masks and gloves at all times, said the person who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity because those details were not publicly announced. —Associated Press

Tesla reversed course and cancelled requests to bring workers back to production lines in Fremont, California, this week.

According to internal correspondence shared with CNBC, Tesla asked dozens of furloughed workers last Friday, and over the weekend, to come back on Wednesday, Apr. 29 to resume production in Fremont.

In new messages sent Monday and distributed on some internal message boards, a human resources employee wrote:

"Per the direction of the executive leadership team, we will not be returning to work Wednesday, April 29. Please disregard all communication and directives on returning to work this week."

Tesla shares dropped more than 1% on the news in after-hours trading, after rising more than 10% during the day. —Lora Kolodny

Texas will lift its most stringent statewide coronavirus restrictions this week and allow some businesses to reopen with safety requirements, Gov. Greg Abbott announced. 

"Because of your efforts, the Covid-19 infection rate has been on the decline for the past 17 days," he said at a news briefing. "Because of your efforts, and especially the work of our doctors and nurses and all our health care providers, our hospitalization rate has held steady and our hospital capacity has remained above it."

Abbott will allow the current statewide stay-at-home order to expire on April 30, he said, adding that businesses will reopen in phases beginning May 1. He said restaurants, retail stores and bars will be among the businesses allowed to reopen first, though capacity will be limited to 25%. —William Feuer

Stocks rose on Monday as investors cheered the possibility of reopening the economy after the coronavirus outbreak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 358.51 points higher, or 1.5%, at 24,133.78. Monday marked the Dow's first close above 24,000 since April 17. The S&P 500 gained 1.5% to close at 2,878.48 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.1% to 8,730.16. (Click here for the latest market news.)

Monday's gains put the S&P 500 on pace for its biggest one-month gain since 1987 with an 11.4% surge in April. The Dow is up 10.1% month to date; that would be its best monthly performance since 2002. 

Stocks that would benefit most from an economic reopening led the way higher on Monday. MGM Resorts and Carnival both climbed more than 8%. Gap and Kohl's gained 12.9% and 17.7%, respectively. —Fred Imbert

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that health officials are extending the city's stay-at-home order through May.

Six counties in Northern California, including the city of Berkeley, will also introduce extended stay-at-home orders this week, according to a joint statement released by county health officials. The extended orders will also include the lifting of certain restrictions.

"We do expect some lower-risk activities to be allowed to resume soon, but for the safety of you and those around you we must build on the progress we've made," Breed said in a tweet announcing the order's extension Monday. —Hannah Miller

tweet

Judd Apatow's comedy starring "Saturday Night Live's" Pete Davidson will skip theaters and head straight to on demand, Universal said.

David plays Scott, a man in his mid-20s that lost his firefighter father at a young age, still lives at home with his mother and dreams of becoming a tattoo artist. He's forced to face the grief he's been suppressing over his father's death when his mother starts dating another firefighter.

"The King of Staten Island" will be available on-demand starting June 12, one week prior to when it was set to be released in theaters. The film has foregone its original theatrical debut because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is one of only a handful of films that has opted to skip cinemas entirely, like "Trolls," "Scoob" and "The Love Birds." 
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. —Sarah Whitten

As states loosen lockdowns and allow certain businesses to reopen, the country's top retail trade groups are asking governors to establish "uniform, statewide standards."The Retail Industry Leaders Association and the National Retail Federation laid out a vision for reopening stores in a six-page document that's titled "A Blueprint for Shopping Safe." 

They recommended a phased-in approach that begins with e-commerce, such as delivery and contactless curbside pickup of purchases, and asked governors to set clear standards, such as requiring face covers if deemed appropriate.In their proposal, the trade groups said governors must set statewide rules, so employees, customers and law enforcement have clear expectations. But, they said, as part of the first phase of reopening, warehouses and distribution centers in all states should reopen at the same time to make sure there's a functioning supply chain. —Melissa Repko

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a roadmap to restoring the economy. 

During a news briefing, Murphy said the goal of the road map is to restore the health, strength and well-being of New Jersey for the long term. "The road back is driven by data, science, health progress and common sense. We will use rigorous standards that are equally smart and thoughtful," he added.

The governor's guideline listed six principles: sustained reduction in new cases, expanded testing, robust contract tracing, securing safe places for isolation, responsible economic restart and ensuring resiliency. 

While the announcement implies hopes of reopening businesses soon, the governor emphasized that "public health creates economic health." Murphy said the state is actively working towards doubling the diagnostic testing capacity by the end of May and expanding its partnerships with private sector labs. It is also looking to recruit and deploy an "army of contract tracers" to prevent further spread of the coronavirus.

"This is a plan for how we move forward not if we move forward," Murphy said.The New Jersey governor also ensured that he will work with regional partners through the Multi-State Council in making decisions on restoring the economy. "We will move as quickly as we can but as safely as we must. We have to be thoughtful on how we unfold our economy. This virus is now among us and our task is to contain it as best as we can." —Jasmine Kim

tweet

University of California, San Francisco, launched a new effort to offer diagnostic and antibody Covid-19 testing to 5,700 residents who live in a specific section of the Mission District, San Francisco's densest neighborhood.

The initiative, which is being done through a partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, is meant to gather data on the community spread of the virus, including among those who are asymptomatic, according to UCSF.

"Studying in detail how the virus has spread in these two distinctive communities will give us crucial data points that we can extrapolate to better predict how to control the virus in similar communities nationwide," said Dr. Bryan Greenhouse, an associate professor of medicine who is leading the study. The testing is available at pop-up sites within the part of the Mission District eligible for testing, according to UCSF. The UCSF initiative previously extended testing to Bolinas, a small rural town in nearby Marin County. —Hannah Miller

Scientists still don't know whether coronavirus antibodies give a person immunity or reduce the risk of reinfection, even as some nations consider issuing passports or certificates that indicate whether someone has had the virus, World Health Organization officials said.

Some countries are considering issuing so-called immunity passports or risk-free certificates to people who have antibodies against Covid-19, enabling them to travel or return to work assuming that they are protected against reinfection, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, told reporters during a news conference at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.

But right now, scientists are unsure whether an antibody response means someone is immune from the virus, she said, adding researchers do know a person typically develops an antibody response about one to two weeks after becoming infected with Covid-19.

WHO officials are studying the so-called serological, or antibody, tests, which can indicate whether a person has had Covid-19 in the past and was either asymptomatic or recovered from the illness. U.S. officials and corporations across America are pouring money into antibody testing, hoping it will give people confidence to return to work and reopen parts of the economy. —Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

The U.S. faces a "very difficult situation" in grappling with an epidemic that varies by state and is evolving at different rates across the vast country, a top World Health Organization official said.

"I think that the United States has been dealing for a while with a complex situation," added Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's emergencies program. "It's a very large country, 50 states, each one with different populations, with different levels of urbanization and the epidemic at different levels of development and evolution in each of those."

Ryan commended the U.S. for rolling out data-driven federal guidelines such as President Donald Trump's "Opening Up America Again" plan, which lays out three "phases" to guide states on how and when to reopen, based on factors such as new daily infections and hospital capacity. 

"The federal government and the system of governors are working together to move America and its people through this very difficult situation with public health and other scientific leaders adding and inputting their advice into the system," Ryan said. "We believe that the overarching federal plan seems to be very much based on science." —William Feuer, Jasmine Kim

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he spoke with President Donald Trump about keeping temporary health-care facilities in New York running in case the coronavirus flares up in a second wave later this year.

Cuomo's remarks come as health experts and political leaders, including those at the White House, warn that the coronavirus could persist through the fall and winter, and may be even more difficult to combat when flu season begins.

"We're now talking about the possibility of a second wave of the Covid virus or Covid combined with regular flu season in September, which could be problematic again for hospital capacity," Cuomo said at a press conference.

"The facilities that were built, I spoke to the president about leaving them in place until we get through the flu season. God forbid we need extra capacity again," Cuomo said. —Kevin Breuninger, Will Feuer

The Los Angeles Lakers, one of the richest NBA franchises, said it applied for and received $4.6 million in federal loans earmarked for small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lakers said they returned the money after learning that the pool of federal lending assistance from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program's initial allotment of $350 billion had been drained of cash because of the huge demand for it.

Forbes recently ranked the Lakers second on its list of most valuable NBA teams, with a valuation of $4.4 billion, slightly behind the the New York Knicks' $4.6 billion. The Lakers last year had $434 million in revenue and $178 million in operating income, according to Forbes. —Dan Mangan, Robert Frank, Jessica Golden

Some of the world's largest investment firms combined to spend at least $3 million to lobby members of the Trump administration and lawmakers on a bill that was meant to give relief to those that have taken a financial hit due to the coronavirus. 

Blackstone, the Carlyle Group and SoftBank took aim at the $2 trillion stimulus package that was signed by President Donald Trump in late March as the global pandemic was shaking the stock market and forcing millions of people out of work. These companies and their lobbyists engaged with U.S. Treasury officials and leaders in the House and Senate, records show. 

People close to two of these companies say the lobbying goals ranged from pushing for their portfolio companies to participate in the federal loan program to monitoring the legislation as it developed. None appears to be trying to get small business loans to go directly into the private equity industry. 

The discovery was made by CNBC after reviewing new first-quarter lobbying reports. Many leaders of these companies have ties to Trump himself, including Steve Schwarzman, CEO of private equity giant Blackstone. Schwarzman took part in a March 24 call with other prominent investors such as Third Point's Dan Loeb, Intercontinental Exchange's Jeffrey Sprecher and Paul Tudor Jones. —Brian Schwartz

Streaming services have seen a major surge in subscriber growth during the coronavirus pandemic, but the outbreak is also driving more people to use pirated movie websites.

New data from Muso, a piracy tracking firm, found that during the last seven days of March, there was a 43% spike in Americans visiting sites that pirate movies compared with the last seven days of February.

"This unprecedented increase in visits to online film piracy sites in the last week of March reveals that as more countries enforced lockdown and required citizens to self-isolate, demand for content via piracy grew exponentially," the company said in a statement.

Notably, Italy, which went under lockdown orders on March 9, saw visits to piracy sites spike 66%. —Sarah Whitten

U.K. Health Minister Matt Hancock has announced a "life assurance scheme" for the families of staff in the National Health Service and social care who die as a result of Covid-19.

In the government's daily press conference, Hancock said that the families of those who die doing "front- line work" will receive a payout worth £60,000 ($74,500).

He said that nothing replaced the loss of loved one, "but we want to do everything we can for their grieving families."

To date, 82 NHS health workers and 16 care workers have died from the coronavirus, Hancock added. The government also reported 360 new hospital deaths, taking the total to 21,092. —Katrina Bishop

Say hello to the high-walled cubicles made famous in the 1999 film, "Office Space," because they're about to make a comeback.

For years offices have crammed more employees into smaller spaces, while creating an open collaborative atmosphere.

"If you think about tech companies that are highly dense and working in those 'benching workstations' side by side," said Gable Clarke, director of interior design at the architecture firm SGA. Now with Covid-19, things like "benching" are the opposite of what employees want to face as they return to work.

As companies plan how to bring their workforce together again in the office, there are numerous calculations being made to provide an environment that will keep workers safe, healthy and productive. While some of that strategy involves testing and monitoring employees to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, there is thought being paid to the actual physical design of offices. —Jane Wells

A new CNBC index that tracks the stock performance of companies working on a coronavirus cure shows just how closely the broader stock market rebound is pegged to a viable Covid-19 treatment or vaccine.

The S&P 500 and the CNBC Covid-19 Testing & Treatments Index have moved in near lockstep since the market bottomed on March 23. A look at their movement since the March bottom reveals the S&P 500 and the Covid-19 index tend to rise and fall at the same time. The relationship between the two reveals just how important coronavirus news is to Wall Street investors, who have for weeks said a reliable treatment is key to unleashing financial markets and an eventual return to all-time highs.

CNBC's Covid-19 Testing & Treatments Index is equal-weighed and currently composed of 29 companies that are working on testing and treating the coronavirus. Its components are a mixture of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies ranging from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen to Foster City, California's Gilead Sciences. 

Its largest components by market value are Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche and Novartis. The companies that make up the index will be updated as more companies become involved in the development and production of potential Covid-19 remedies. —Thomas Franck, Gina Francolla

Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC he believes that most people who had the coronavirus will have "some level" of immunity.

"Now how long that immunity lasts, how strong it is, we don't know. It might not last that long in certain people. It might not be that strong so you can get reinfected but perhaps not get as sick," he said on "