Planning your “new” summer vacation? “Be brave, but...don't be foolish” says Michael McGarrity, Vice President of Global Risk Services in USA Today’s recent article, "The new reality of vacationing: Don’t be afraid but don’t be overconfident, either."
Mass protest gatherings in major cities and small towns alike across the country have raised fears of increased spread of COVID-19. Some of the hardest-hit cities like NY, LA, DC, and Boston saw the largest protest gatherings over the past week.
An April poll from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that 98 percent of its member companies had canceled international business trips, and 92 percent axed all or most domestic travel. But in a May follow-up poll, more than half the respondents said they plan to resume travel in the near future.
New unemployment claims in the U.S. passed the 40 million mark since the pandemic took hold. Approximately 1 in 4 U.S. workers have filed for unemployment since mid-March.
The drugmaker Moderna out of Cambridge, Massachusetts announced that their coronavirus vaccine appears to be safe and able to stimulate an immune response against the COVID-19 virus. The initial results are from testing performed on eight volunteers. The second phase involving 600 people will begin soon and is on an accelerated timeline.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced a two-week extension of stay-at-home orders for parts of the state, including NYC, that do not meet certain criteria laid out by the state. Five regions of New York were cleared to reopen some non-essential businesses; the Finger Lakes, including Rochester; Central New York, a five-county area including Syracuse; the Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania; the Mohawk Valley, west of Albany; and the rural North County, which includes the Adirondack Mountains.
The number of daily new cases recorded in the U.S. has been slowly trending down over the last four days, largely due to significant declines in new cases in New York City, Detroit, and New Orleans.
