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The reverend approached the makeshift pulpit and asked the Lord to help him make some sense of the scene before him: two caskets, side by side, in a small-town cemetery busier now than ever before. Rev. Willard O. Weston had already eulogized other neighbors lost to COVID-19, and he would do more. But this one stood as a symbol to him of all they had lost. The pair of caskets, one powder blue, one white and gold, contained a couple married 30 years who died two days apart, at separate hospitals hours from each other, unaware of the other’s fate. The day was dark. There was no wind, not even a breeze. It felt to some like the earth had paused for this. (Galofaro, 5/6)

Take the New York metropolitan area’s progress against the coronavirus out of the equation and the numbers show the rest of the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction, with the known infection rate rising even as states move to lift their lockdowns, an Associated Press analysis found Tuesday. New confirmed infections per day in the U.S. exceed 20,000, and deaths per day are well over 1,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. And public health officials warn that the failure to flatten the curve and drive down the infection rate in places could lead to many more deaths — perhaps tens of thousands — as people are allowed to venture out and businesses reopen. (Forster, Johnson and Stobbe, 5/6)

In New York City, the daily onslaught of death from the coronavirus has dropped to half of what it was. In Chicago, a makeshift hospital in a lakefront convention center is closing, deemed no longer needed. And in New Orleans, new cases have dwindled to a handful each day. Yet across America, those signs of progress obscure a darker reality. The country is still in the firm grip of a pandemic with little hope of release. (Bosman, Smith and Harmon, 5/5)

Americans remain deeply wary of eating at restaurants, shopping at stores and taking other steps to return to normalcy, a poll shows, even as the White House is contemplating shutting down its coronavirus task force. With several covid-19 models taking a wrenching turn toward bleaker death forecasts in recent days because of reopening moves in some states, most Americans say they worry about getting the virus themselves and they oppose ending the restrictions meant to slow its spread, according to the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. (Zapotosky, Wan, Balz and Guskin, 5/5)

A new poll from the Washington Post–University of Maryland shows most Americans are still too hesitant about the novel coronavirus to eat in restaurants or shop in stores. Of those polled, 67% said they would be uncomfortable going to a retail store, and 78% say they would be uncomfortable in a sit-down restaurant. Fifty-six percent of participants, however, said they were comfortable going to a grocery store. Gyms and movie theaters ranked high on the list of businesses Americans say are not safe to reopen. (Soucheray, 5/5)

With more than half the country now into at least the first stage of reopening, one expert says the US still hasn't done enough to protect residents from the coronavirus. "I don't think you can say, how much suffering are you willing to bear in order to restart the economy until you have done everything possible to ensure that every single person in American can take measures to protect their own health, the health of their families and the health of their communities," Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN Tuesday. "That's just not the case right now." (Maxouris, 5/6)

In this small city near the Platte River, the largest employers are deemed essential and the region’s workforce continues to fill its meatpacking plants and manufacturing floors. Local officials have now confirmed hundreds of coronavirus cases, with more than 200 linked to a local JBS USA beef plant and another 40 to area nursing homes. There were 1,228 Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday in a city of roughly 51,000, according to the regional health department. That puts its per capita rate of infection well above that of New York, the hardest-hit state in the nation by the coronavirus pandemic. (Ailworth, 5/6)

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday his five-phase reopening plan, while the state saw its highest daily death toll from COVID-19. Over the last 24 hours, 176 residents died, said Illinois Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike, who joined the governor at his daily briefing. That brings the number of deaths in the state to more than 3,800. (Corley, 5/5)

New York will work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to “reimagine” the state’s school system as part of broader reforms in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo told a daily briefing on Tuesday. Cuomo, who has emerged as a leading national voice on states’ efforts to battle the crisis, said he believed people were starting to see the pandemic as a rare opportunity to make large-scale changes. (Layne and Singh, 5/5)

Leaders in the greater Washington region wrestled with the uncertainties of reopening their economies Tuesday, balancing residents’ desires to resume a more normal life as summer approaches against the continued spread of coronavirus infections and deaths. Mixed messages on the wisdom of continued closures emerged as the region’s death toll from the pandemic reached 2,367, with more than 52,000 known infections. A day after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said he expects to ease some restrictions on nonessential businesses by mid-May, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned in television and radio interviews that it was too soon for District residents to begin letting down their guard. (Jamison and Hedgepeth, 5/5)

Schools should be ready to phase in their reopenings, perhaps starting with reduced hours, before returning to full activity amid the coronavirus pandemic, pediatricians said Tuesday. Schools should also plan for intermittent closures in the future if the virus begins to rebound, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in new guidance. (Fox, 5/5)

Ann Northrop has not left her home often during the coronavirus epidemic. “I’m old,” the 72-year-old from Manhattan said. “I don’t want to get sick.” But Ms. Northrop still showed up to a small protest on Sunday to criticize New York officials for allowing a religious organization that opposes gay rights to treat coronavirus patients. She felt safe, she said, because her fellow protesters wore face coverings and stood several feet apart. (Paybarah, 5/5)

A video of a violent weekend arrest in Manhattan that left a man injured and an officer taken off patrol duty came as frustration and anger build over how social distancing orders are being enforced. As New York state remains the hardest-hit area of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, tensions are especially high in New York City, which accounts for roughly half of the more than 321,000 confirmed cases and over 25,000 deaths statewide. (Bellware, 5/5)

States have called them stay-at-home orders or shelter-in-place orders. People are calling it isolating or quarantine. But now that many Americans are entering a second month of being in their homes and away from people, some think stronger words are more appropriate: like lockdown. Or house arrest. Being told to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus may be wearing on millions of Americans, even as some states move to reopen. But the restrictions are familiar for tens of thousands of Americans who were already under court-ordered house arrest before the pandemic began. (Gresko, 5/6)