Trump says he's hoping the US will "come in below that 100,000 lives lost" projection
From CNN's Jason Hoffman
President Donald Trump departs the White House in Washington DC on May 1. Alex Brandon/AP
US President Donald Trump has discussed the projected number of deaths from coronavirus, saying that “hopefully we are going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost.”
Trump said Friday that thanks to the steps Americans have taken as part of the 30 days to slow the spread guidelines, “we have saved thousands and thousands of lives. I can even make that, if you want, hundreds of thousands of lives.”
Trump said the 100,000 figure is a “horrible number nevertheless,” and added that coronavirus “should have been stopped at the source, but it wasn’t.”
The 100,000 predicted deaths is a higher number than Trump has used in recent weeks -- previously, he had been predicting up to 70,000 people dying from the virus.
9:45 p.m. ET, May 1, 2020
More than 1,000 police officers will enforce social distancing in New York this weekend
From CNN's Rob Frehse
An NYPD officer walks along a sparsely populated Wall Street in New York City, NY on May 1. John Minchillo/AP
The New York Police Department will have more than 1,000 police officers on foot, bikes and in vehicles to enforce social distancing during the weekend.
The NYPD said the officers will also educate the public about proper social distancing procedures, “so we can all help stop the spread of the coronavirus and keep all New Yorkers safe and healthy.”
Temperatures could reach 72 degrees in New York City on Saturday and 78 degrees on Sunday.
9:45 p.m. ET, May 1, 2020
UK government criticized over coronavirus testing claims
Analysis by CNN's Luke McGee
Matt Hancock, the UK's Health Secretary Pool
Matt Hancock, the UK's Health Secretary, proudly announced on Friday that the country had hit an ambitious coronavirus testing target that it set at the beginning of the month.
On April 2, after weeks of criticism that the UK was lagging behind its European counterparts like Germany on testing, Hancock said he was "setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day, by the end of this month. That is the goal and I am determined that we will get there."
On Friday, Hancock said from that same podium that the UK had beaten the goal by more than 22,000.
Striking an upbeat tone, Hancock said: "I knew it was an audacious goal, but we needed an audacious goal."
Ambiguous numbers: Critics might point out that the goal wasn't the only thing to come out of Hancock's mouth that could be called audacious. In the numbers counted, thousands of tests have been sent out to the public, but not necessarily returned.
Jonathon Ashworth, the opposition Labour party's shadow health secretary, has already issued a statement, accusing the government of fiddling the numbers. "Increasing testing is an important milestone. But many would have expected the 100,000 promise to have been met by actually carrying out testing, not simply because 39,000 kits had been mailed out," he said.
The issue of testing didn't need to become so political.
When the UK gave in to pressure to reverse its March 12 decisions to abandon mass community testing on April 2, it didn't need to set itself a specific target or a specific deadline. Indeed, it seems very unlikely that any scientific or medical advice would have produced a round number like 100,000 or a neat date such as the end of a month. These promises were based on political choices made by the government and it is entirely reasonable that critics expected the target to be met.
It is, however, also reasonable for critics to point out that the date and the number of tests carried out is entirely arbitrary and what really matters is a coherent purpose for those tests being carried out — such as rolling out a contact tracing program.
So, while the UK government can be proud of its extraordinary expansion of testing in such a short period of time — and no one can deny that more testing is a positive thing — it's reasonable that critics would find any backslapping for simply keeping its own promise somewhat unedifying.
9:45 p.m. ET, May 1, 2020
UK accomplishes its target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day
From CNN's Nada Bashir and Milena Veselinovic in London
The UK met its target to test 100,000 people a day for the coronavirus by the end of April, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said during the daily Downing Street briefing on Friday.
The number of tests done on the last day of April was 122,347, Hancock said.
"I knew that it was an audacious goal, but we needed an audacious goal," he added.
The total number of coronavirus infections in the UK has reached 177,454 cases -- an increase of 6,201 from the day before, Hancock said. At least 27,510 people have died from the virus in the UK.
