Coronavirus Update: beaches open for summer, POTUS and the VP are traveling, Fauci will testify

Roughly 70,000 Americans have now died of the novel coronavirus, and while infection and hospitalization rates in most places have decreased and stabilized, the numbers have not fallen as much as medical experts scientists, and government officials hoped they would by this point.

Nonetheless, life appears to be moving along in some parts of the country, as states continue to phase back into various states of being open for business.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is preparing to reopen the Maryland beaches this week, as the summer months draw ever closer.

The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, is being sued by a Republican congressman, who is alleging that her coronavirus emergency orders violate the separation of powers and infringe on the constitutional rights of the people of Michigan.

President Trump and Vice President Pence each have several trips on their schedules. Trump on Tuesday was in Arizona, sans face mask. The president has recently expressed frustration at the idea of keeping the country in a semi-permanent state of shutdown.

The president has also made it clear that the coronavirus task force will begin to be dialed back. Dr. Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify Tuesday on Capitol Hill next week, before the Senate HELP committee. Fauci in the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Newly emerged whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright, will also testify before the House Energy and Commerce committee next Thursday. Bright was ousted as chief of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, in an apparent dispute about an the coronavirus pandemic and a related experimental treatment. 

A dozen European countries are easing coronavirus-related restrictions this week, though in Asia, Japan – a country with a higher-than-average elderly population – has extended its state of emergency through May.

There are currently 1.2 million diagnosed cases of coronavirus in the United States, accounting for roughly a third of total reported global cases.