Coronavirus update: Global infections climb above 7.1 million as health experts question WHO statement on asymptomatic carriers

“We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing,” Van Kerkhove said. “They’re following asymptomatic cases. They’re following contacts. And they’re not finding secondary transmission onward.”

The agency appeared to backtrack on her comments on Tuesday, after a backlash from infectious-disease experts.

Ashish Jha, incoming dean at the Brown School of Public Health, said his best guess is that people without symptoms are indeed a cause of spread and said the WHO comment was creating confusion and should have been accompanied by data.

Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert at Baylor University, tweeted that if the statement were true it would be a game changer, but asked if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees with the WHO.

The issue of asymptomatic carriers is key as many countries move to lift restrictions on movement and allow businesses to reopen, relying on testing and contact tracing to ensure the virus remains contained.

See also: As Europe grapples with placing visitors in quarantine here’s what’s happening around the world

In the U.S., all 50 states are now at some phase of reopening, as public-health experts caution against moving too fast and note that many states are still seeing increases in new cases. While some states that were early hot spots, like New York and Illinois, are showing steady declines in new infections, others, like California and Florida, are seeing fresh spikes.

See now:States continue to reopen after coronavirus lockdowns — New York City finally takes a small step

A full 22 states are still showing increasing rates of infection, according to a New York Times tracker, and some are showing record-high levels. The list includes Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas and Utah. In the latter state, one district has seen an average of 78 new cases a day after an outbreak at a meat processing plant in the town of Hyrum, according to a Washington Post report outlining how the illness is affecting smaller counties and health districts that were previously spared.

Andy Slavitt, a former head of health care for the Obama administration, tweeted that hospitalization rates are rising in Arizona, Arkansas and Utah, in the case of Arizona by as much as 240% in the last two weeks. Arkansas hospitalizations are up 180% in the last 28 days, he wrote, and Utah has seen a 36% increase in the last seven days.

Latest tallies

There are now 7.16 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and at least 407,302 people have died, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. More than 3.3 million people have recovered.

The U.S. has the highest case toll in the world at 1.96 million and the highest death toll at 111,097.

Brazil has 707,412 cases and 37,134 fatalities, the data show. Brazil has ceased to publish updates of cases and deaths, according to media reports, but four major newspapers and two affiliated news sites announced a partnership to collect data directly from state health departments and to report updated tallies of fatalities and cases, among other daily and weekly statistics.

Russia has 484,630 cases and 6,133 fatalities. Russian capital Moscow lifted its restrictions on movement on Tuesday, with critics fretting about the potential for a new wave of infections.

Moscow residents are no longer required to stay at home or obtain electronic passes for traveling around the city, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday, as the Associated Press reported. All restrictions on taking walks, using public transportation or driving have been lifted as well.

The U.K. has 288,934 cases and 40,680 deaths, the highest death toll in Europe and second highest in the world after the U.S.

India has moved past Spain and Italy, two early hot spots, by case tally. India now has 269,897 cases and 7,508 deaths.

Spain has 241,717 cases and 27,136 deaths, while Italy has 235,278 cases and 33,964 deaths. The Spanish government has said face coverings will be mandatory until the virus is fully under control, or a vaccine has been developed

Peru, France Germany, Iran, Turkey Chile, Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Canada are next and all ahead of China, where the illness was first reported late last year. China has 84,195 cases and 4,638 deaths. .

Read now: ‘Life in Iceland is almost back to normal.’ How we fought coronavirus — and succeeded where others failed

What are companies saying?

There were glimmers of hope in announcements from companies on Tuesday, in updates on how reopened outlets are faring. Macy’s Inc. shares rocketed after it said reopened stores are performing better than expected.

The department store chain guided for first-quarter losses, but the numbers are still better than consensus forecasts and the company is expecting sales of more than $3 billion despite lockdowns.

“Our strong digital business sales trend continued throughout May, and it is encouraging to see that as we reopen a store, the digital business in that geography continues to be strong,” said Jeff Gennette, Macy’s chief executive, in a statement.

See: The NBER is wrong — the recession didn’t begin in February, it began in March

By June 1, the company had reopened 450 stores, and the strong sales have the company moving toward a “clean” inventory position. Gennette will speak at a Cowen virtual conference later Tuesday. Macy’s will announce first-quarter results on July 1.

Mattress company Purple Innovation Inc. PRPL, +4.57% was another gainer after it said sales improved in May thanks to strong direct-to-consumer sales and demand for mattresses, pillows, and seat cushions. The Lehi, Utah-based company said direct-to-consumer sales rose 125% in the month to about $71 million from the year-earlier period.

May wholesale orders fell less than 2% to $17.3 million, compared with a 43% decline in April. As of May 31, more than two thirds of the company’s roughly 1,800 wholesale partners had reopened for business after being closed during the pandemic.

Brinker International Inc., meanwhile, said same-restaurant sales at Chili’s are showing signs of recovery and are outperforming peers.

Jack Daniel’s distributor Brown-Forman Inc. beat sales expectations for its latest quarter, thanks to strong off-premise sales, which helped offset the impact of pandemic lockdowns.

Elsewhere, companies continue to make disclosures about cash positions and to raise money through equity or bond offerings.

Here are the latest things companies have said about COVID-19:

• Allegiant Travel Co. ALGT, -4.29% continues to see “material improvement” in travel demand off the April lows, which has helped reduce its cash burn per day below previous expectations. The travel services and airline company’s traffic for May was down 70.1% from a year ago while capacity was down 47.2%, with scheduled departures down 48.8%. “We have been pleased to see that May demand trends were stronger than anticipated,” said Vice President of Revenue Drew Wells. “During the first week of June we operated 70 percent of our schedule versus roughly 50 percent of the schedule in May.” Chief Financial Officer Gregory Anderson said second-quarter cash burn per day is expected to be about $1.75 million, below previous expectations of $2.1 million per day, while third-quarter cash burn is expected to be $1 million per day.

• Brinker International Inc.’s EAT, -3.78% comparable sales at its Chili’s chain of restaurants were down 18.9% for the week ending June 3, marking continued improvement from previous weeks. Comparable sales fell 11% for locations with open dining rooms. “Chili’s continues to outpace the casual dining industry and grow market share,” the company said in a business update. “Third-party data indicates Chili’s comparable restaurant sales are on average more than 20 percentage points better than comparable restaurant sales for the casual dining industry over the last five weeks.” Maggiano’s comparable sales were down nearly 70%, and total company-owned restaurants had a 25.6% comparable sales decline for the week. Brinker had about $113 million in cash on hand and a $429 million revolving credit available as of June 3. Brinker will announce fiscal fourth-quarter results on August 12. As of June 8, Chili’s had 873 dining rooms open.

• Brown-Forman Corp. BF.A, +2.70%, BF.B, +2.32% parent of alcoholic beverage brands including Jack Daniel’s, Finlandia and Korbel, reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit that missed expectations, while sales fell less than forecast helped by “strong growth” in off-premise and e-premise sales. The company said the pandemic started negatively affecting business in mid-March, as on-premise sales, which represent about 20% of its business, and travel retail sales “essentially came to a halt.” For fiscal 2020, whiskey sales grew 3%, with Jack Daniel’s sales up 1%; premium bourbon brands underlying sales grew in the double-digit percentage range and tequila sales rose 5%. The company is not providing fiscal 2021 financial guidance given uncertainties related to the pandemic.

• California Resources Corp. CRC, -27.31% could file for bankruptcy as soon as next week, according [l: a report in The Wall Street Journal, as the oil driller disclosed that it failed to make certain interest payments due on May 29. The company entered into forbearance agreements with most of its lenders, who have agreed not to exercise “remedies” under the credit agreements. The company has until Sunday to get an extension from its creditors; without the extension, the company will file for bankruptcy. The company has suffered from a sharp selloff in crude oil futures [s: cl00] prices to start this year, as a result of the drop in demand from the pandemic and the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

• Casey’s General Stores Inc.’s CASY, -3.72% revenue topped Wall Street estimates but profit fell short. “We had significant momentum for the first half of the quarter inside the store, but slowing customer traffic related to COVID-19 contributed to overall volume declines,” said Darren Rebelez, Casey’s president and chief executive, in a statement. “Stronger sales of lower-margin products relative to other categories led to a reduction in the average margin for the quarter.”

• Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK, +181.93% is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg report, that cited people familiar with the matter. The the filing could hand over control of the company to its senior lenders. Chesapeake is negotiating a restructuring support agreement that could lead some lenders to take most of the equity in bankruptcy, although the terms of the agreement could change, the report said. A spokesman for Chesapeake declined to comment to Bloomberg.

• Conn’s Inc. CONN, -21.56% recorded a wider than expected adjusted loss as same-store sales declined and the company’s credit business increased its allowance for bad debts, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Conn’s increased its allowance for bad debts in its credit segment by $65.5 million in response to the economic effects of the pandemic, in accordance with a new accounting methodology. Conn’s also implemented payment-deferral programs for customers and temporarily increased hourly wages by $2 an hour.

• ConocoPhillips COP, -3.55% was able to survive the pandemic without layoffs because it had learned lessons from its Chinese operations, Chief Executive Ryan Lance said. “In China we have a large operation in Bohai Bay that is offshore,” the executive said in an interview with Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit [s: info]. “In working with our partner, CNOOC, [we] came up with a protocol that said there was about a 14-day incubation period for the virus, send people offshore and have them work for 14 days and then the next group coming in would have to self-quarantine and isolate for 14 days.” The company adapted that protocol in the North Slope of Alaska, where it had 4,000 workers, and for other workers offshore in Norway and other regions around the world, he said. The company decided early on to curtail production and is currently thinking about which circumstances would allow it to come back to market. “We’ve got about a third of our production shut-in as a company—400,000 barrels a day,” he said. Lance expects the shale market to come back, but more slowly as companies refine their capital programs to grow more slowly than before. The CEO does not expect the U.S. oil production market to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels. The full interview is available at: www.ceraweek.com/conversations

• General Electric Co. GE, -5.26% reopened portions of previous debt offerings for GE Company and GE Capital for total proceeds of $3 billion. That was “in response to a reverse inquiry from a long-term strategic investor,” the conglomerate said. The proceeds will be used to reduce shorter-duration debt, including repaying a portion of GE’s intercompany debt obligations to GE Capital and reducing GE Capital’s debt, the company said. The move is the latest to have improved the company’s near-term liquidity.

• HD Supply Holdings Inc. HDS, +5.73% reported a fiscal first-quarter profit that fell short of expectations, given “extraordinary challenges” created by the pandemic, but sales beat expectations. The industrial distribution company’s sales fell 6.6% to $1.40 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus of $1.37 billion, facilities maintenance sales declined 11.7% to $682 million to miss expectations of $702 million while construction and industrial sales slipped 1.1% to $713 million to beat expectations of $684.3 million. Preliminary net sales for May were $431 million, or an average daily decline of about 7.3%, compared with a decrease of 22.6% in April, a 0.5% increase in March and a 8.8% rise in February. The company is not providing financial guidance given uncertainties associated with the pandemic.

• Hologic Inc.’s HOLX, -0.13% fiscal third-quarter’s financial outlook has improved, mainly because one of its units is seeing more revenue related to COVID-19 tests. The medical device maker’s surgical business has started to recover faster than the company expected, and its diagnostics business has outperformed “significantly” thanks to “strong” sales of the company’s COVID-19 tests. The company expects revenue from the diagnostics business to grow 20% to 25% in the quarter. Due to ongoing uncertainty related to the pandemic, however, it would not quantify longer-term financial effects.

• Macy’s Inc. M, -2.68% guided for first-quarter losses that are ahead of expectations and said reopened stores are outperforming. Macy’s is expecting a net loss of $652 million, or $2.10 per share, after net income of $136 million, or 44 cents per share last year. Its adjusted loss per share is expected to be $2.03. The company is guiding for sales of $3.02 billion, down from $5.50 billion last year. The FactSet consensus is for a loss of $2.18 per share and sales of $3.04 billion. “Our strong digital business sales trend continued throughout May, and it is encouraging to see that as we reopen a store, the digital business in that geography continues to be strong,” said Jeff Gennette, Macy’s chief executive, in a statement. By June 1, the company reopened 450 stores, and those stores are “performing better than anticipated,” Gennette said, with sales moving the company toward a “clean” inventory position.

• PG&E Corp. PCG, -4.97% will move its headquarters from San Francisco to Oakland in 2022 as part of a cost-saving effort. The beleaguered California utility company is currently seeking to emerge from bankruptcy, which it entered in January 2019 after facing billions of dollars in liabilities from devastating wildfires caused by its power lines. PG&E has been based in San Francisco for more than 100 years. “Our new Oakland headquarters will be significantly more cost-effective, is better suited to the needs of our business, and is a critical part of fulfilling our commitment to operate in a fiscally responsible way that will enable us to achieve our operational and safety goals,” incoming interim Chief Executive Bill Smith said in a statement. The move across the bay will be carried out in stages, and is expected to be completed in 2023.

• Purple Innovation Inc.’s PRPL, +4.57% sales improved in May thanks to strong direct-to-consumer sales and demand for mattresses, pillows, and seat cushions. The Lehi, Utah-based company’s direct-to-consumer sales rose 125% in the month to about $71 million from the year-earlier period. May wholesale orders fell less than 2% to $17.3 million, compared with a 43% decline in April. As of May 31, more than two thirds of the company’s roughly 1,800 wholesale partners had reopened for business after being closed during the pandemic. The company’s cash position improved by 54% to about $96.1 million. “Following a strong start to the second quarter, the momentum in our business continued in May driven in part by a very successful Memorial Day weekend,” said Joe Megibow, Chief Executive Officer. “We are experiencing robust demand for our entire product portfolio led by our differentiated mattresses, pillows, and seat cushions, especially in our direct-to-consumer channel as we have shifted resources toward capturing the recent acceleration in online spending.” The company is pushing ahead with expansion plans for manufacturing and is seeking a new facility in the Southeast.

• Roku Inc. ROKU, -1.82% announced a new ad-targeting program meant to help marketers of consumer-packaged goods conduct “more precise and measurable” streaming TV advertising. The company’s launch partner for this initiative is Kroger Co.’s KR, -1.33% precision marketing unit. Through the program, markets will have access to Kroger sales information as they make their media-buying choices. Kroger’s precision marketing tools can help marketers segment messages to various customer bases.

• Signet Jewelers Ltd. SIG, -14.61%, the operator of jewelry store brands including Kay Jewelers, Zales and Jared, reported a narrower-than-expected fiscal first-quarter loss but sales that missed and said it will permanently close stores as it looks emerge from the pandemic with a smaller store footprint. E-commerce sales grew 6.7%. The company said it has begun a staggered store reopening in May, but plans to not reopen at least 150 stores in North America and 80 stores in the U.K., and plans to close an additional 150 stores by the end of the fiscal year. The company currently operates about 3,200 stores.

• Tiffany & Co. [s: tif] reported a much wider-than-expected fiscal first-quarter net loss as sales fell well short of forecasts as the pandemic led to the closure of a “substantial number” of stores. Americas sales fell 45%, Asia-Pacific sales shed 46%, Japan sales declined 40% and Europe sales decreased 40%. Sales in China have improved to 90% growth in May and 30% growth in April, after declines of 15% in March and 85% in February. Chief Executive Allesandro Bogliolo said he was “confident” that Tiffany’s future included LVMH, following reports last week that the roughly $16 billion buyout by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE LVMH, -0.15% looked uncertain.

Verso Corp. VRS, -6.29% expects to lay off about 1,000 employees, as it idles mills in Duluth, Minnesota and Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin this summer, given the accelerated decline in demand for graphic paper in the pandemic. The company had 3,700 employees as of Dec. 31, 2019. Verso is exploring “viable and sustainable alternatives” for both mills, including restarting them if market conditions improve, a sale of the mills or permanent closures. “We expect the idling of these facilities to improve our free cash flow,” said Chief Executive Adam St. John. “The sell through of inventory is expected to offset the cash costs of idling the mills.”

• Wendy’s Co.’s WEN, +0.44% sales turned positive in the last week of May as beef supplies returned to “near-normal levels” after the worse of the pandemic. The Dublin, Ohio-based company said global same-restaurant sales for the last week of May turned positive in the low single-digit range, with breakfast accounting for 8% of U.S. sales.