Below are 26 updates from the six states hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic:
New York (223,691 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will issue an executive order that will allow the state to coordinate testing laboratories statewide, including private sector laboratories.
"Testing is the next frontier," he said at a media briefing April 17. "We don’t have a testing system that can deal with the volume [of tests we need to do]. This is where we were with the hospital system." In response, the state began coordinating patient load, equipment and other resources across public and private hospitals.
Similarly, the state now plans to coordinate the 301 hospitals and laboratories that perform virology testing.
2. Mr. Cuomo also said there needs to be a coordinated federal strategy for testing, otherwise, as with medical supplies earlier on during the pandemic,states might compete with each other and the federal government to buy tests and get the chemicals needed to operate those tests.
3. Another key issue for New York is stabilizing its finances, but the state needs funds from the federal government, Mr. Cuomo said April 17. The government has not yet passed any bill providing unrestricted funding for states, and states cannot begin to plan for reopening without help from the federal government.
"[Reopening] is up to the governors, it’s up to the governors — okay, but where is the funding?" he said.
"That is passing the buck without passing the bucks," Mr. Cuomo added, quoting A.J. Parkinson, the fictitious character invented by Mario Cuomo, Mr. Cuomo's father and former governor of New York.
4. Updated projections show that New York and other hot spots across the country are experiencing longer peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic than previously expected, experts who created the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model said, according to CNN. The model is the most prominent one cited by the White House. New model projections also show that some states in the South may not be as hard hit as initially thought.
"Counterbalance to that is that places like New York seem to be stuck at the peak for longer than we originally expected," Christopher Murray, MD, DPhil, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model said, CNN reports. "... It's not something that I think anybody expected to see where people would, instead of two or three days to peak, they're spending a longer period and then cases will start to come down."
5. As of April 14, 2,477 residents have died in nursing homes in New York due to the novel coronavirus, and 583 have died in adult care facilities, showing that long-term care facilities are being hit hard by the pandemic.
Read more about how New York is fighting the coronavirus here.
New Jersey (75,317 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy directed state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to investigate nursing facilities that are experiencing high numbers of coronavirus-related deaths, NJ.com reports.
The order came after officials discovered 17 bodies in a "makeshift morgue" at a Sussex County nursing home that had the capacity to store no more than four people. Mr. Murphy expressed his outrage in an April 16 tweet.
Since March 30, 35 people died at the facility due to COVID-19, according to New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli, BSN, RN.
2. New Jersey is looking to borrow up to $9 billion from the U.S. Federal Reserve to make up for a significant loss of state revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reports.
Funding from the federal government would go a long way toward keeping New Jersey solvent, Mr. Murphy said on April 16.
Under his administration's plan, the state would borrow for this fiscal year and next, and depend on future revenue to repay the debt. If sufficient revenue can't be met, New Jersey would increase property and sales taxes.
3. Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck is reportedly the first hospital in the country to inject COVID-19 patients with placenta cells obtained from new mothers, according to CBSN New York.
Placenta cells have the ability to calm the inflammation in patients' lungs, which can reduce the chance of respiratory failure, according to Ravit Barkama, MD, assistant vice president of clinical development at the hospital's institute for clinical research.
The FDA is granting the therapy's use on a case-by-case basis.
4. A nursing home in Woodstown accepted its first COVID-19 patients in its new isolated wing on April 15, completing the project in just 13 days, according to NJ.com.
The wing was built in response to Mr. Murphy's executive order that directed long-term care facilities to expand operations to accommodate residents with COVID-19.
The unit has the capacity for eight to 12 beds, with the opportunity to increase those numbers. It is not intended to accept hospital overflow cases, like other long-term care facilities in the state.
Read more about how New Jersey is fighting the coronavirus here.
Massachusetts (32,181 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will ship 1 million more pieces of personal protective equipment to Massachusetts, according to WBUR. The shipment includes 650,000 masks and 260,000 protective suits.
2. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker warned that the COVID-19 surge has arrived in the state, according to MassLive. He said that there has been a spike in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the state throughout the last few days.
"We've talked now for a couple of weeks about the fact that somewhere around the middle of April, we were going to enter the worst part of the pandemic. That part of the pandemic is here," Mr. Baker said. "I know it's difficult for everybody to hear this, particularly given how significantly their lives have been upended over the course of the past five weeks, but this virus obviously doesn't work on a schedule."
3. Massachusetts has begun reporting COVID-19 patient census by hospital each day in an effort to better manage bed capacity in the state. As of April 15, Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital was treating the highest number of patients with COVID-19 patients at 395, followed by Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which was treating 236 COVID-19 patients.
Read more about how Massachusetts is fighting the coronavirus here.
Michigan (29,263 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. Governors from seven states, including Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Minnesota, are working together to reopen the economy in the Midwest.
The objective is to reopen the economy "in a way that prioritizes our workers' health," the governors said. They will work with experts to examine best practices for social distancing, testing and healthcare capacity and controlling infections and hospitalizations.
2. In an April 17 interview on ABC's 'Good Morning America,' Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said that she hopes to have "some relaxing" of the state's stay-at-home order by May 1.
But she cautioned that the decision to ramp up the state's economy must be made based on "science and facts" to avoid a second wave of COVID-19.
With thousands of Michigan residents protesting her executive order to expand the state's stay-at-home order at the state capital in Lansing on April 16, pressure is building for the governor to ease mobility restrictions for residents, but she insisted that her focus will remain on public safety.
"I'm the governor for almost 10 million people. I represent and want to protect every one of them, whether they want to support me politically or not," Ms. Whitmer said. "My job is to protect the people of Michigan and that's precisely what I'm doing with these orders."
3. Michigan is stepping in to aid DMC Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit as the facility attempts to deal with a surge in coronavirus-related deaths, Click On Detroit reports.
Photographs of bodies of COVID-19 victims being stored in refrigerated containers outside the hospital went viral April 16.
With funeral homes and morgues at capacity, hospital employees told Click On Detroit that bodies of COVID-19 victims are being placed in vacant rooms and sleep study labs with the "air condition on to keep the bodies cool."
4. On April 16, state Rep. Jason Sheppard introduced a bill to reduce the powers given to the Michigan governor during states of emergency, NBC 25 reports.
The state lawmaker cited the governor's executive orders prohibiting travel between residences and the closing of nonessential businesses as an overreach of power.
"The governor is playing with people’s constitutional rights," he said. "We have a responsibility to constantly review the situation and make adjustments when necessary to protect the rights of residents and prevent overreach during future states of emergency."
Read more about how Michigan is fighting the coronavirus here.
Pennsylvania (28,314 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. The 200-bed field hospital constructed at Philadelphia-based Temple University's sports arena has opened, according to WHYY, the local PBS and NPR member station. The facility is intended to provide space for COVID-19 patients in the end stages of recovery if hospitals in the area become overwhelmed with patients. As of end-of-day April 16, there had been no admissions, a spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney told WHYY.
2. The Navy ship Comfort, docked in New York City, will begin seeing patients from Philadelphia as well, according to CNBC. The ship was transformed into a COVID-19 facility and has 500 beds to care for those patients. It also includes 12 operating rooms, a blood bank, a medical laboratory and a pharmacy.
"In anticipation of medical support needed in the greater Philadelphia area, the USNS Comfort is prepared to admit patients within a one-hour traveling radius from the ship," a statement by the Department of Defense's Northern Command reads, according to CNBC.
3. After New York extended its stay-at-home order for the state's residents to May 15, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said that he is not ready to do the same, according to Penn Live.
"I don't have any plans along those lines yet, and again, that's New York and [Gov. Andrew Cuomo] has to make decisions about what's best for New York," Mr. Wolf said during a conference call with reporters April 16, Penn Live reports.
Pennsylvania's stay-at-home order extends until April 30 at the moment.
4. Protesters are planning to gather in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg April 20 to object to business closures and other restrictions currently in place in the state, 6 ABC reports. Thousands are expected to join the protest, organizers say, and social distancing is being encouraged. Protesters are also being told to wear face masks.
Mr. Wolf said April 16 that he does not have a timeline for when nonessential businesses will be allowed to open in the state or when stay-at-home and social distancing measures will be lifted, according to 6 ABC.
5. Pennsylvania clinicians and healthcare workers should be given immunity from malpractice claims while the pandemic is ongoing, the president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society wrote in a letter to Mr. Wolf April 14, Lancaster Online reports.
At least 12 states, including New York, have granted medical liability immunity during the crisis. Mr. Wolf has said previously through an aide that he is considering offering Pennsylvania's healthcare workers this immunity.
Read more about how Pennsylvania is fighting the coronavirus here.
California (28,175 confirmed cases as of 7:25 a.m. CDT April 17)
1. California is one of the 22 states that requires nurse practitioners to practice under supervision of a physician, according to STAT. Despite efforts to lift those restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and shortage of healthcare workers, California has resisted a push to lift practicing limits for nurse practitioners, and those limits will likely to hold, according to the report. Many physicians in the state argue that California has enough providers.
2. In California, 2,974 healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19 as of April 15. This is an increase of 185 from April 14. The confirmed case number includes individuals who tested positive after on-the-job exposure, as well as travel and close family contact, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
3. In California, 246,400 COVID-19 tests had been conducted as of April 15. This is an increase of 18,800 from the number of tests conducted as of April 14. Of the 246,400 tests, 239,181 results have been received and another 7,200 are pending, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
4. An executive order signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom allows the state Department of Justice to develop a procedure to perform name-based background checks to avoid delays in processing employment to essential service sectors, like healthcare.
5. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is refuting claims from Mr. Newsom's administration that his company didn't follow through on his promise to donate ventilators to California hospitals, according to Mercury News. Earlier this week Mr. Newsom's administration said that no California hospital has received ventilators from Tesla, according to The Sacramento Bee. However, on April 15, Mr. Musk tweeted a list of hospitals he claimed his company provided with ventilators.
During a daily media briefing, Mr. Newsom said he "was not personally aware" of Mr. Musk's list of hospitals before the tweet, but said he is "very encouraged" by his donations.
"I look forward to learning where they [the ventilators] went, and I'm very grateful for his support," Mr. Newsom said.
Read more about how California is fighting the coronavirus here.