Glenn gives the latest coronavirus numbers, updating YOU on everything needed to know as Americans and officials monitor China's new COVID-19 virus:

Daily Stats as of 5:30 AM CT (from John's Hopkins)

• Total Confirmed Cases Worldwide: 1,030,324 (up from 950,638 Yesterday)
  
• Total Confirmed Deaths Worldwide: 54,226 (up from 48,289 Yesterday)
• Total Confirmed Recovered Worldwide: 219,896 (up from 202,631 Yesterday)
• 5% of Active Cases are considered serious (requiring hospitalization) Steady from 5% Yesterday, but down from 19% high back in February
• Note that 12% of US Confirmed Cases require Hospitalization, roughly on par with Italy at 12% requiring hospitalization and lower than Spain, where 18% of patients require hospitalization.
• US has 245,380 Confirmed Cases and 6,095 Deaths, up from 215,344 cases and 5,112 deaths yesterday
• The US currently has 228,874 Active Cases of COVID-19, with about 1% of the US Population tested
• 15% of Americans who have been tested have been diagnosed with COVID-19

• The White House is poised to urge Americans to wear cloth masks or face coverings in public to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, in a reversal of earlier advice.
• President Trump said Thursday at a coronavirus task force briefing that "a recommendation is coming out," but "I don't think it will be mandatory. If people want to wear them, they can."
• Later, however, a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate internal discussions, said that the guidance being considered is "narrowly targeted to areas with high community transmission" and that the matter remains under discussion.
• A new Memo from the CDC states: "In light of new data, along with evidence of widespread transmission in communities across the country, CDC recommends the community use of cloth masks as an additional public health measure people can take to prevent the spread of the virus to those around them."
• The recommendations represent a major change in CDC guidance that healthy people don't need masks or face coverings.
• The news comes as Laredo, TX joins more than a dozen American cities or Counties that have mandated the use of face masks for all persons in public spaces such as grocery stores or shopping centers. Violaters without a facemask risk up to a $1000 fine. https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-city-fine-people-who-dont-cover-faces-outside-coronavirus
• Similar provisions are being considered for the entire State of California, according to Governor Gavin Newsom's office.

• Unlike Vaccine testing and production which could take months or years, SARS-CoV-2 Antibody tests could be available in the US in a few weeks.
• Such tests could be key in enabling the partial lifting of lockdown and shelter-in-place orders, as authorities could determine who might already have immunity to the virus and could return to work.
• "If we can determine someone's already had the virus and now has immunity and is no longer contagious to others, that's what we're looking for here," said Anthony Fauci in Thursday's White House COVID-19 Task Force update.
• However, it should be noted that researchers have yet to determine if anti-body production renders people permanently or only temporarily immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
• While some Virus immunities, such as Chicken Pox, are generally permanent immunities, others, such as SARS-1 and Rhinovirus (the common cold) grant only short-term, multi-month immunity...which is why people can get a cold each year.
• Most known Coronavirus immunities in humans are not permanent, researchers have noted. Influenza, for example, grants only seasonal immunity and can be caught again only a few months later.

• The much-touted Navy Hospital Ships in New York and Los Angeles sit 95% empty as of Thursday evening.
• In New York, The USNS Comfort's 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle. "We're waiting for patients," one nurse was quoted by the New York Times.
• Only 20 patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus.
• Another Navy hospital ship, the USNS Mercy, docked in Los Angeles, has had a total of 15 patients, officials said.
• "If I'm blunt about it, it's a joke," said Michael Dowling, the head of Northwell Health, New York's largest hospital system. "Everyone can say, 'Thank you for putting up these wonderful places and opening up these cavernous halls.' But we're in a crisis here, we're in a battlefield."
• What's the issue? In classic government style: Red Tape.
• On top of its strict rules preventing people infected with the virus from coming on board, the Navy is also refusing to treat a host of other conditions. Guidelines disseminated to hospitals included a list of 49 medical conditions that would exclude a patient from admittance to the ship.
• Ambulances cannot take patients directly to the Comfort; they must first deliver patients to a city hospital for a lengthy evaluation — including a test for the virus — and then pick them up again for transport to the ship. With 911 call centers already massively over-capacity, ambulances aren't available to take non-infected persons to each ship.
• Meanwhile, across New York hospitals are overrun. Patients have died in hallways before they could even be hooked up to one of the few available ventilators in New York. Doctors and nurses, who have had to use the same protective gear, again and again, are getting sick.
• "So many people are dying that the city is running low on body bags," Dowling said. "The Coroner's office told our administrator to start double-wrapping bodies in sheets for the time being."

• Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine believe that they've found a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus.
• The researchers announced their findings Thursday and believe the vaccine could be rolled out quickly enough to "significantly impact the spread of disease," according to their study published in EBioMedicine.
• The vaccine would be delivered on a small, fingertip-sized patch. When tested on mice, the vaccine produced enough antibodies believed to successfully counteract the virus.
• The scientists say they were able to act fast because they had already done research on the similar coronaviruses SARS and MERS.
• The Trump Administration ordered the FDA to fast-track the next phase of Animal trials for the experimental vaccine.
• Officials did warn that even if successful, human trials and ultimate production could still be as many as 12-18 months away.
• "It's early, but this is a very positive result," the lead scientist said in an interview. "We're well on our way."

• Governor Phil Scott issued an Executive Order mandating that retailers including Walmart, Target, Costco, Ace Hardware and Home Depot cease in-person sales of non-essential items.
• This makes Vermont the 2nd State in the US to make Gardening Supplies "non-essential", after Governor Larry Hogan had already done so in Maryland this week. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/technically-youre-not-allowed-to-buy-gardening-or-painting-supplies-during-marylands-stay-at-home-order/65-e49bb9a8-b773-4f76-9fbf-6ce7c9a130a9
• The list of items deemed non-essential includes electronics, books, furniture, sporting equipment, toys and gardening supplies or lawn care.
• Such items could still be ordered by way of various company websites, according to signs posted inside Walmart stores, posted to Twitter by Walmart shoppers.

• The ban comes as many Americans have turned to growing Coronavirus Victory Gardens as a means to ensure they have food on hand but can still practice social distancing. https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/04/02/new-victory-gardens-vineyarders-turn-soil, https://www.ocregister.com/2020/03/31/coronavirus-victory-gardens-sprouting-up-across-the-region/
• In the UK, a similar ban on gardening as a non-essential activity threatens as many as 1/3rd of the countries garden centers and nurseries, according to the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52098436

• Canada's government issues a list of industries and jobs it deemed essential, including food delivery, shipping & logistics, medical care, energy production & delivery.
• One industry that was glaringly absent: agricultural production.
• Like the US, Canada's agricultural industry relies on migrant and seasonal workers to plant and harvest foods, especially key fruits and vegetables that must be picked by hand.
• Industry representatives have begun to petition the government to include Ag production an essential service so travel restrictions can be relaxed to allow workers to travel into Canada and use of public transportation systems to get to where planting activities must occur soon to allow for Fall food harvests.
• Canada's Federation of Independent Grocers also extended a warning to the Government that it projects food costs in Canada could rise by as much as 90% in the coming months due to COVID-19 related disruptions. https://nationvalleynews.com/2020/04/01/grocers-group-warns-rising-food-costs-come/

• Much of the US food supply chain is staffed by low-wage workers, many of them undocumented immigrants with limited ties to health services.
• The Pew Research Center has estimated that about one-quarter of U.S. farmworkers are undocumented.
• A 2019 U.S. Department of Labor survey estimated that the share of field workers who are undocumented is closer to half of all farmworkers.
• The food processing industry also has high numbers of undocumented workers, as do many of the nation's smaller grocers and fast-food restaurants.
• Immigrant farming communities are often close-knit, with laborers living and working in close proximity, with workers sharing hotel rooms and even make-shift Tents with cots, to save on costs.
• As the California-based Western Growers Association states, "Social distancing is difficult or perhaps impossible in certain settings such as harvesting, transport (of workers) and housing."
• One California grower told National Public Radio that if the coronavirus penetrates the agricultural community, "it will spread like wildfire."
• The news comes as Mexico only recently restricted movements and travel, issuing shelter-in-place orders for 90% of the country.
• The Trump Administration recently eased restrictions on H-2a Ag Worker visas, but industry experts warned many workers planned to stay in Mexico or other Central American countries due to travel restrictions now in effect in those countries. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-03-27/state-department-eases-requirements-for-h2a-visa
• The Western Growers Association currently estimates a 30% reduction in labor force this year, which may be further impacted if COVID-19 spreads among workers who live and work in tight close quarters.

• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced new guidelines for construction sites that continue to operate during the coronavirus pandemic while encouraging the community to report businesses that violate the Safer at Home order.
• Garcetti said that since the stay at home order was put in place, the city has been told about construction sites that have not been following the guidelines set out in that order.
• "You know the old expression about snitches, well in this case snitches get rewards," Garcetti said. "We want to thank you for turning folks in and making sure we are all safe."
• As of Tuesday afternoon, Garcetti said "business ambassadors" from the city had visited 540 businesses that had not complied with the Safer at Home order. Of those, 144 were visited by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department to ensure compliance with the order.
• So far, Four businesses have been referred to the city attorney's office for misdemeanor filings.
• The story comes as business owners across the US have been cited and even arrested for violating House Arrest orders, many turned in by way of anonymous calls to police departments. https://apnews.com/343ed4a8e95dfc8f8dda87b9e450ca57

• (Headline Bloomberg News) Germans snitch on neighbors flouting virus rules, in an echo of the Stasi past
• Law-abiding Germans are zealously helping police crackdown on people flouting new social distancing rules aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus by reporting on strangers, neighbors and friends.
• In a country where denunciation was commonplace under the Communists in East Germany and Hitler's Nazis, police forces across the country are getting tip-offs on anything from "corona parties" to people driving to weekend cottages.
• Rules introduced in March forcing restaurants, pubs and sports facilities to shut and banning gatherings of people have given police plenty of work. With the number of corona cases and deaths climbing fast, there is no sign of easing enforcement.
• Since March 14, police in the German capital have ordered 830 pubs, shisha bars and other establishments to shut and recorded 898 crimes.
• "We are getting tip-offs from the public about open restaurants or large gatherings of people in parks," said a spokeswoman, adding officers were, as always, ready to deal with information from the public.
• Forces around Germany are in a similar situation. Munich police took up to 150 calls every day last week from citizens reporting alleged breaches of corona rules, according to Spiegel Online.