Burger King footing bill for Burger-King wedding

More than 4.4 million people worldwide -- including more than 1.4 million 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 to shift their focus toward reopening their economies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is tracking cases in the U.S. here. Live updates for Friday, May 15, continue below:  Worldwide cases approach 4.4M, total deaths tops 297K Update 7:51 a.m. EDT May 15: The global death toll attributed to the novel coronavirus reached 302,493 early Friday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. In the four months since the virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, it has infected at least 4,444,670 people worldwide. Meanwhile, nearly one in every four deaths reported worldwide has occurred in the United States, and 10 nations now have total infection counts higher than China’s 84,029. The 10 nations with the highest number of infections recorded to date are as follows: • The United States has reported 1,417,889 cases, resulting in 85,906 deaths. • Russia has confirmed 252,245 cases, resulting in 2,305 deaths. • The United Kingdom has reported 234,441 cases, resulting in 33,693 deaths. • Spain has confirmed 229,540 cases, resulting in 27,321 deaths. • Italy has reported 223,096 cases, resulting in 31,368 deaths. • Brazil has recorded 203,165 cases, resulting in 13,999 deaths. • France has confirmed 178,994 cases, resulting in 27,428 deaths. • Germany has reported 174,478 cases, resulting in 7,884 deaths. • Turkey has recorded 144,749 cases, resulting in 4,007 deaths • Iran has recorded 114,533 cases, resulting in 6,854 deaths. NY barber who defied stay-at-home orders to cut hair tests positive for COVID-19 Update 2:37 a.m. EDT May 15: Health officials in upstate New York have confirmed an unidentified barber who insisted on providing hair cuts in defiance of stay-at-home orders has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Ulster County Department of Health and Mental Health issued a statement Wednesday via Twitter asking anyone who has received a haircut at a barbershop in Kingston, New York, during the past three weeks to contact a doctor or call a state hotline to be tested. “Learning that a barbershop has been operating illicitly for weeks with a COVID-19 positive employee is extraordinarily disheartening,” Ulster County Health Commissioner Carol Smith said in the statement, adding, “As much as we would all like to go out and get a professional haircut, this kind of direct contact has the potential to dramatically spread this virus throughout our community and beyond.” New York Stock Exchange reopening trading floor on May 26 Update 2:21 a.m. EDT May 15: The New York Stock Exchange plans to reopen its trading floor May 26, two months after the novel coronavirus pandemic forced its shutdown. In an opinion column published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, NYSE President Stacey Cunningham said certain restrictions will accompany the reopening, including limiting the number of traders allowed to return to the floor and strict enforcement of both face mask and social distancing requirements. In addition, returning workers are prohibited from using New York City public transit to get there and must submit to temperature checks upon entering the facility, the Journal reported. Arkansas music venue stands down from plan to hold Friday concert amid coronavirus concerns Update 2:01 a.m. EDT May 15: Arkansas’ TempleLive has nixed plans to host a Travis McCready concert on Friday after having its liquor license suspended. Concert organizers had argued their plan to welcome as many as 229 ticketholders was no more questionable than houses of worship being able to resume in-person services, especially considering they planned to incorporate “fan pods” to ensure social distancing guidelines were met within the 1,100-seat Fort Smith venue, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The planned country-rock show would have violated not only Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s stay-at-home order, barring indoor performance venues from reopening until next week, but also the 50-person limit that will apply to crowds once shows resume. In turn, Arkansas health officials issued a cease-and-desist order on Tuesday, and on Thursday the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Division suspended TempleLive’s liquor license temporarily, the newspaper reported. US coronavirus cases surpass 1.4M, deaths near 86K Published 12:27 a.m. EDT May 15: The number of novel coronavirus cases in the United States surged past 1.4 million early Friday 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 1,417,777 confirmed U.S. cases of the virus, which have resulted in at least 85,898 deaths.  The hardest-hit states remain New York with 343,051 cases and 27,641 deaths and New Jersey with 142,704 cases and 9,714 deaths. Massachusetts, with 82,182 cases, has the third-highest number of deaths with 5,482, while Illinois has the third-highest number of cases with 87,937. Only 18 states and territories have confirmed fewer than 5,000 cases each. Five other states have now confirmed at least 43,000 novel coronavirus cases each, including: • California: 74,871 cases, resulting in 3,052 deaths • Pennsylvania: 63,105 cases, resulting in 4,288 deaths • Michigan: 49.582 cases, resulting in 4,787 deaths • Texas: 44,485 cases, resulting in 1,235 deaths • Florida: 43,210 cases, resulting in 1,875 deaths Meanwhile, Georgia, Maryland, Connecticut and Louisiana each has confirmed at least 33,000 cases; Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Colorado each has confirmed at least 20,000 cases, followed by Washington state with 17,773; North Carolina and Tennessee each has confirmed at least 16,000 cases; Iowa and Minnesota each has confirmed at least 13,000 cases; Arizona and Rhode Island each has confirmed at least 12,000 cases; Wisconsin and Alabama each has confirmed at least 11,000 cases; Missouri and Mississippi each has confirmed at least 10,000 cases, followed by Nebraska with 9,260 and South Carolina with 8,189; Kansas, Kentucky and Delaware each has confirmed at least 7,000 cases; Utah, the District of Columbia and Nevada each has confirmed at least 6,000 cases, followed by New Mexico with 5,503. Click here to see CNN’s state-by-state breakdown.

Authorities have recovered the bodies from Lake Utah of two teenagers, who had been missing for more than one week, multiple media outlets reported. Priscilla Bienkowski, 18, and Sophia Hernandez, 17, had been feared dead since their disappearance May 6 after high winds invaded the area, KSL reported. Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon confirmed the bodies were found early Thursday afternoon about 8.5 miles from where bystanders saw the girls enter the water, the TV station reported. “One of the most important things that I want to say tonight is, on behalf of the sheriff’s office and all of the volunteers and everybody that has helped through this, is express our sincerest condolences to the families of these girls,” Smith told the Deseret News, adding, “This has been hard on everybody involved. I want to thank the families for their patience with us. I can’t imagine and never want to imagine what they’re going through.”

A Louisville man has been charged with kidnapping and second-degree assault after police say he padlocked a woman to the ceiling of a home before torturing her. According to court documents, Brandon McQuillen, 38, was taken into custody Wednesday after police say he got into an argument with a woman with whom he was in an intimate relationship on May 10, WDRB reported Per the documents, McQuillen is accused of placing a chain around the woman’s neck and padlocking her to the ceiling. He is also accused of tasing her repeatedly in the stomach, striking her side repeatedly with a pool cue and punching her multiple times in the face, the TV station reported. According to WHAS, McQuillen left the woman chained for about 12 hours before his former roommate alerted authorities. Read more here and here.

A Florida man was reunited with his $3,000 titanium leg this week after a teenage diver discovered it in the jetties of St. Andrews State Park. Carter Hess lost his original leg  when he stepped on an explosive in  Afghanistan in 2012 and the surfer was fitted with the special appendage at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, specifically so he could keep up his sport.  Since then his friends like to tease him about the leg by sending him online stories of found prosthetics. This week, The Panama City News Herald reported about a leg discovered by 13-year-old Sebastian Morris.  When Hess was tagged in the online story Monday, he realized the leg was his! He had lost the limb last month while surfing.   Hess, met up with Morris and his mother Tuesday to take them to dinner and retrieve the appendage. 

An “aggressive” swarm of bees were responsible for the Wednesday deaths of three Arizona dogs, officials with the Tucson Fire Department confirmed Thursday. After warning residents to avoid the area, a fire crew “foamed” the bees with insecticide and removed the dogs from the threat, USA Today reported. “We never enjoy killing precious bees, but in these rare cases it is necessary,” the fire department said via Twitter. One dog died on the scene and the other two were pronounced dead at a nearby veterinarian clinic, NBC News reported. According to USA Today, Africanized honey bees, or “killer bees,” are prevalent across the southwestern United States between March and October and are known to attack after the slightest provocation to protect their hive, but the species in Wednesday’s attack has not bee definitively identified.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday night warned that users of the Abbott ID NOW point-of-care test to diagnose those with the Coronavirus - a test often used by the White House and touted by President Donald Trump - may not be accurate. 'Specifically, the test may return false negative results,' the FDA said in a statement. 'We are still evaluating the information about inaccurate results and are in direct communications with Abbott about this important issue,' the FDA added. The Thursday night statement indicated the test was accurate for positive results on the Coronavirus, but that negative results might need to be confirmed with a second review. President Trump has often talked up the Abbott test as an indicator of how well the U.S. has responded to the virus threat. 'This is a five to 15-minute test,' the President said on Monday about the Abbott test. 'These tests are highly sophisticated -- very quick, very good. This is things that didn't even exist a short while ago.' 'So we do have a great testing capability at the White House,' Mr. Trump added. The FDA statement came a day after researchers at New York University released a study which said the rapid test might miss as many as half of positive cases. Abbott had questioned the accuracy of that NYU review. President Trump has alternately trumpeted the growing testing capabilities in the U.S. - and bemoaned them as well. 'We have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing,' the President said during a stop in Pennsylvania on Thursday.  'When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing we would have very few cases. They (the press) don't want to write that. It's common sense,' Mr. Trump said.