Coronavirus: Pence says he should have worn face mask during visit to Mayo clinic

More than 3.4 million people worldwide -- including more than 1.1 million people in the United States – have been infected with the new coronavirus, and the number of deaths from the outbreak continues to rise. While efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak continue, states have begun shifting their focus to reopening their economies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking cases in the U.S. here.

>> Coronavirus: Know the facts directly from the CDC

Live updates for Sunday, May 3, continue below:

Pence says he should have worn face mask during visit to Mayo clinic

Update 11:13 p.m. EDT May 3: Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that he should have worn a face mask during his visit to the Mayo Clinic last week.

Pence first said during an interview with Fox News that he did not think wearing a face covering was necessary since he was so frequently tested for the virus.

"I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic," Pence said later during the interview.

Mayo Clinic staff briefed Pence's team about the mask policy before his visit last Tuesday.

Pence appeared bare faced as he met with an employee who had recovered from the virus. Everyone else in the room was wearing a mask. He later participated in a round table discussion where he was the only person not wearing a mask.

Pence defended the move immediately after the incident.

“As vice president of the United States I’m tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis, and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus,” Pence said. “And since I don’t have the coronavirus, I thought it’d be a good opportunity for me to be here, to be able to speak to these researchers, these incredible health care personnel, and look them in the eye and say ‘thank you.’”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans wear cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Afghanistan releases nearly 100 more Taliban prisoners

Update 9:48 p.m. EDT May 3: Afghanistan released 98 prisoners Saturday night as part of the governments efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The prisoners were released from Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul based on their health, age and time left on their sentence, according to the National Directorate of Security, CNN reported.

The release is in line with an agreement signed March 11 to release prisoners as part of a peace negotiation. So far, 650 prisoners have been released. Another 850 are expected to be released as part of the deal.

There are 2,704 confirmed cases and 85 deaths from the coronavirus in Afghanistan, according to Johns Hopkins’ tracking information.

Nearly 400 employees test positive for virus at Missouri pork processing plant

Update 8:04 p.m. EDT May 3: Nearly 400 workers at a Missouri pork processing plant have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said.

The 373 contract employees at Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Buchanan County, Missouri, showed no signs of illness, CNN reported.

"We continue to work this weekend contacting these asymptomatic patients and have initiated the process of contact tracing with those determined to be close contacts of our positive cases," Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services said in a statement.

The health department has tested more than 2,300 Triumph Foods employees.

There are 8,154 confirmed cases and 373 deaths from the coronavirus in Missouri, according to The New York Times.

Some Illinois banks to cash stimulus checks for customers without account

Update 6:14 p.m. EDT May 3: State officials reached an agreement with five banking institutions that will allow Illinois residents without an account to cash their coronavirus stimulus check without charge.

The state has partnered with Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, Fifth Third and First Midwest Bank, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a Sunday news conference, CNN reported.

One in five households in the state either do not have a bank account or access to adequate banking, CNN reported.

There are 58,505 confirmed cases and 2,576 deaths from the coronavirus in Illinois, according to The New York Times.

China hid severity of coronavirus outbreak to hoard supplies, report says

Update 5:41 p.m. EDT May 3: U.S. officials believe China concealed the severity of the coronavirus, including how contagious it is, in order to hoard supplies needed to combat it, The Associated Press reported.

China “intentionally concealed the severity” of the outbreak in early January, according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated Friday, The AP reported.

At the same time the country downplayed the virus' severity, it stockpiled medical supplies.

The country also did not inform the World Health Organization that the coronavirus was a contagion for much of January in order to increase its import of face masks and surgical gowns.

Intelligence officials are still assessing the idea that the pandemic started in a lab.

“Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on ABC’s “This Week.” “These are not the first times that we’ve had a world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab. And so, while the intelligence community continues to do its work, they should continue to do that and verify so that we are certain. I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Senate returns to Washington amid coronavirus

Update 4:52 p.m. EDT May 3: The U.S. Senate is back in session Monday after legislators stayed home for the last month amid the coronavirus.

Although lawmakers are returning, adequate testing for every member of Congress is still not available, Jamie Dupree of Cox Washington Bureau reported.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle rejected a plan to provide tests.

“Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time,” wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a rare joint statement. “Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly.”

CEO says Remdesivir will be delivered to U.S. hospitals this week

Update 3:30 p.m. EDT May 3: The CEO of the company that manufactures Remdesivir, a drug that has shown promise in reducing recovery time for coronavirus patients, will begin to be delivered to U.S. hospitals this week.

Gilead Sciences, a California-based company, “Will begin shipping tens of thousands of treatment courses out early this week and be adjusting that as the epidemic shifts and evolves in different cities,” Daniel O’Day said on “Face the Nation.”

The Food and Drug Administration gave an emergency authorization to use the drug on patients infected with serious cases of COVID-19, The Washington Post reported. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, said last week that the drug had a "clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery.”

Cuomo: Not wearing masks is ‘disrespectful’

Update 1:03 p.m. EDT May 3: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily news conference that people in his state refusing to wear masks despite the coronavirus pandemic is “disrespectful.”

“We almost overwhelmed the whole health care system. So cautious moving forward and, look, how people cannot wear masks, that, to me, is even disrespectful. It’s disrespectful," Cuomo said Sunday afternoon. “It’s disrespectful to the nurses, the doctors, the people who have been front line workers, the transit workers. You wear the mask not for yourself. You wear the mask for me. It’s a sign of respect to other people. You make me sick. That’s disrespectful.”

Mississippi governor wants to reopen 'as soon as possible’

Update 12:22 p.m. EDT May 3: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he wants to reopen the state “as soon as possible,” despite what he called a “one-day blip” after coronavirus cases rose during a 24-hour period last week, The Washington Post reported.

Reeves told “Fox News Sunday” that state officials analyzed data over the weekend and discovered the number of cases seemed higher because more tests were done, the newspaper reported.

“What we found was it was really a data dump,” Reeves said Sunday.

Showing a graphic that illustrated that the daily increase in the number of cases in Mississippi throughout April remained in the 200s, Wallace questioned whether Reeves should consider reopening since the state’s cases haven’t declined over the past two weeks. The White House has recommended that states reopen only after their numbers show a decrease over two weeks.

“Mississippi is different than New York,” Reeves responded, adding that his state’s hospitals aren’t at capacity. He said that he has spoken to Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, and that they agreed that Mississippi has never had an extreme outbreak.

NYC mayor says city will produce its own test kits

Update 10:42 a.m. EDT May 3: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday the city will produce its own COVID-19 test kits.

The city will be working with Print Parks to create swabs for the testing kits, the mayor said. New York City is on a track to produce 50,000 3D-printed swabs per week, de Blasio said.

Viral Transport Medium (VTM) will get the tests to hospitals as soon as possible, the mayor told reporters.

Birx: Vaccine by January possible 'on paper’

Update 10:33 a.m. EDT May 3: Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said on “Fox News Sunday” that having a coronavirus vaccine by January is possible “on paper” but will need proper execution to become a reality.

While other estimates have put the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 at least a year away, Birx said the timetable could be moved up under the right circumstances.

“The way that it’s possible is if you bring forward five or six different classes of candidates, which the Operation Warp Speed has done,” Birx said. “And so it’s not relying on a single vaccine platform. It’s relying on several different candidates that are made differently and act differently.”

Birx added that clinical trials would have to be accelerated for the vaccine to be released by early 2021.

“And so, on paper it’s possible. It’s whether we can execute and execute around the globe, because you also, for phase three, have to have active viral transmission in a community in order to study its efficacy," Birx told “Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace.

Spain’s daily death total hits 6-week low

Update 10:13 a.m. EDT May 3: Spain’s Ministry of Health reported 164 deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the lowest daily total in six weeks.

“As sad as it is to speak about the deaths, the increase of 0.7 percent from the previous day is a good number” Fernando Simón, Spain’s director for health emergencies, said Sunday.

The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic in the country stands at 25,100, according to Johns Hopkins University.

About $175B paid out during 2nd round of SBA program

Update 8:40 a.m. EDT May 3: In a statement Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Small Business Administration Administrator Jovita Carranza, the average size of a loan made under the second round of the federal relief program was $79,000. Administration officials said that at least 2.2 million loans, totaling $175 billion, have been paid out in the second round of the Payroll Protection Program.

The second round of federal emergency relief aid was signed into law April 24 by President Donald Trump and included an additional $310 billion for the PPP. The distribution of those loans began April 27.

US coronavirus deaths hit 66,385; total cases top 1.1M

Published 7:25 a.m. EDT May 3: The number of novel coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 1.13 million early Sunday across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

According to a Johns Hopkins University tally, there are at least 1,133,069 confirmed U.S. cases of the virus, which have resulted in at least 66,385 deaths. Of those cases, more than 312,000 have been reported in New York, meaning the state has, itself, confirmed more cases than any other nation outside the United States, including Germany with 164,967, France with 168,518, the United Kingdom with 183,500, Italy with 209,328 and Spain with 216,582.

In terms of diagnosed cases, New York remains the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak with at least 308,314 confirmed cases, followed by New Jersey with 123,717 and Massachusetts with 66,263.

Click here to see CNN’s state-by-state breakdown.