Stores in Texas can soon begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more. Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the spread of the coronavirus, even as new hot spots emerge and experts warn that moving too fast could prove disastrous. Adding to the pressure are protests against stay-at-home orders organized by small-government groups and Trump supporters. They staged demonstrations Saturday in several cities after the president urged them to “liberate” three states led by Democratic governors.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump tussled over wide-scale coronavirus testing Friday, with the governor arguing the federal government needs to step up and the president saying Cuomo should stop complaining and start working. The dust-up started during the Democratic governor’s daily briefing, when he said the federal government was doing too little to help states reopen their outbreak-stricken economies by making sure they can perform mass diagnostic testing. “The federal government cannot wipe its hands of this and say, ‘Oh, the states are responsible for testing.’ We cannot do it. We cannot do it without federal help,” he said. Within a half-hour, Trump was tweeting about it. “Governor Cuomo should spend more time “doing” and less time “complaining”.

New York, by far the nation’s leader in coronavirus nursing home deaths, released details Friday on outbreaks in individual facilities after weeks of refusing, revealing one home in Brooklyn where 55 people died and four others with at least 40 deaths. “Every death is heartbreaking,” said Dr. Roy Goldberg, medical director at Kings Harbor Multicare Center, a 720-bed home in the Bronx which reported 45 fatalities. “These have been surreal times.” The state’s accounting of deaths at 68 nursing homes was based on a survey and is substantially incomplete. It accounted for less than half of the 2,477 nursing home deaths that have been reported in the state.

As frum physicians from varied communities, we warn the כלל of the dangers of rapid COVID-19 antibody/immunity tests being offered within our neighborhoods, both at homes and in medical offices. These tests have questionable accuracy and have not yet been properly tested. 1- FDA approved community-based rapid tests of immunity to COVID-19 are not yet available. (Reliable tests are in development.) 2- There are currently no rapid tests for COVID-19 that can accurately tell you whether or not you can still become infected or whether you can still infect others with COVID-19. 3- No social distancing decisions should be made on the basis of any currently offered rapid tests.

Chris Cuomo, who late last month revealed he had tested positive for the coronavirus, said his wife Cristina has now also been infected. The CNN anchor made the announcement on the network Wednesday night during an interview with his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “Cristina now has COVID(-19). She is now positive. And it just breaks my heart,” Chris Cuomo said. “It is the one thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen, and now it has.” CNN’s Chris Cuomo says his wife, Cristina Cuomo, has also tested positive for Covid-19 pic.twitter.com/59RV2xwvuk — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 16, 2020 Cuomo has continued to appear on air and has documented his health struggles with the coronavirus.

Hopeful talk about getting people out of their homes and back to work in some parts of the country seems a far cry from the harsh reality in New York and its suburbs: Thousands of people infected with the coronavirus are still streaming into hospitals every day. Hundreds are still dying. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement Thursday as he announced another 606 deaths in the state and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15. The number dying was down from a day earlier, but remains alarmingly high. New York hospitals are still jammed with nearly 18,000 coronavirus patients, fewer than the crushing numbers authorities once feared but still at crisis levels that have barely budged for more than a week.

A New York City man has been arrested after he texted several friends that he was going to blow up a statue of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park with a pipe bomb, authorities said. Kevin Fallon, 30, was arrested Saturday after police found what appeared to be three pipe bombs in his apartment, according to court documents. The bombs turned out to be empty. Police also found rifle ammunition and several knives taped together, the court papers said. According to the criminal complaint against him, Fallon sent a text to several people on April 9 threatening to blow up the Central Park statue of Alice, the Mad Hatter and other guests at her famous tea party.

YWN regrets to inform you of the petira of HaRav Don Yoel Levy Z”L. He was 72. Rabbi Levy was the Rov of the Beis Eliezer Yitzchak Shul in Crown Heights and was the director of the OK Kashrus Agency since 1987, after he assumed leadership upon the passing of his father. Sadly, his mother Mrs. Thelma Levy A”H was Niftar on Wednesday, 22 Adar, 5780 due to the coronavirus Rabbi Levy was renowned for his vast scholarship and unshakeable principles, coupled with an impassioned desire to inspire the kosher industry to strive for ever higher standards. Over time, the name “Don Yoel Levy” became synonymous with all that is strictly kosher. In his adult life, Don Yoel studied at the Philadelphia Talmudical Yeshiva and later at the Yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, Israel.

The entire federal prison camp in Otisville N.Y. is being sent home due to an outbreak of COVID-19. There are around 100 Jewish prisons there. Sources tell YWN that inmates have been sent home for for 30 days, after which their release will be reviewed. It is likely this will last at least 60 days. Their furlough from prison will be used as time served. Among those being released are Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and former NYS Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. At least 14 inmates and seven staff members at the complex have tested positive for the virus. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The official death toll from the coronavirus soared in New York City on Tuesday after health authorities began including people who probably had COVID-19, but died without ever being tested. Officials reported 3,778 “probable” deaths, where doctors were certain enough of the cause of death to list it on the death certificate, and 6,589 confirmed by a lab test. Combined, that would put the total fatalities in the city over 10,000. The change in the city’s accounting of deaths came after officials acknowledged that statistics based only on laboratory-confirmed tests were failing to account for many people dying at home before they reached a hospital or even sought treatment. “Behind every death is a friend, a family member, a loved one.