Coronavirus live updates: Virus deaths slow in Italy, NRA lays off employees

This is CNBC's live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

States across the U.S. are reopening after some coronavirus lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the virus are eased despite the country seeing its deadliest day on record, according to data collected Friday by the World Health Organization. Warren Buffett revealed at Berkshire Hathaway's first virtual annual meeting on Saturday that he sold all of his airline stocks and didn't see any value in any major acquisitions amid the coronavirus pullback in stocks.

• Global cases: More than 3.4 million
• Global deaths: At least 244,911
• US cases: More than 1.1 million
• US deaths: At least 66,570

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the National Rifle Association to off dozens of employees, cancel its annual convention and abandon fundraising and shooting events which would normally be important to rally its base in an election year, the Associated Press reported.

According to the report, the organization, which has about 5 million members, laid off or furloughed dozens of employees, imposed a four-day workweek for some and slashed salaries across the board, including for CEO Wayne LaPierre.

"The cancellation of the annual meeting had a significant financial impact but, beyond that, the health crisis has caused us to postpone countless fundraising and membership events along with competitions, training seminars and other revenue streams — those disruptions are the primary drivers of our decision-making process," said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the NRA. "Like every other business and nonprofit, we are forced to make tough choices in this new economic environment." —Riya Bhattacharjee, Associated Press

Italy saw the smallest number of coronavirus related deaths since March 10, the Civil Protection Agency said. The death toll from the Covid-19 slowed to 174 on Sunday from 474 on Saturday. The daily number of new cases also fell to 1,389 on Sunday from 1,900 on Saturday. Italy has been in lockdown longer than any other European country. –Fitzgerald, Reuters

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet has given up on his stocks in airlines, divesting from American, Delta, Southwest and United.

Buffet had put aside his doubts about the airline industry in 2016, going on to become one of the biggest shareholders in the U.S.'s four largest airlines. The "Oracle of Omaha" even considered owning his own airline at one point.

The coronavirus has changed his tune, however. —Annie Nova, Leslie Josephs

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called the U.S. reliance on China for personal protective equipment a national security issue, after hard hit states in the northeast like New York had to turn to Beijing for supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. 

"That's a national security issue to me," Cuomo said. "You have to be able to get masks and gowns and whatever medical equipment you need so this nation can run a health-care system in the middle of an emergency."

"You can't be dependent on China to have the basic equipment to save lives in the United States, that's what this came down to," the governor said.

Cuomo announced a consortium with six other northeastern states to develop a regional supply chain for PPE and medical equipment in a bid to aggregate demand and drive down prices. —Spencer Kimball, Emma Newburger

Spirit Airlines will require passengers to wear face coverings when traveling, starting on May 11. Passengers without a face covering will not be permitted to board the plane, the airline said.

Major U.S. airlines on Thursday said they will require travelers to wear face masks onboard their planes as carriers take steps to try to protect the health of passengers and crew. —Melodie Warner  

Tula, a New York-based skincare company, is now trying to keep up with demand as consumers are staying at home and investing even more in health and wellness. 

Purveyors in the clean beauty market space generally offer products free of toxic chemicals and other undesirable ingredients like sulfates and parabens. Tula posted a 400% increase in April sales compared with the year prior — the best April in its six-year history —and double its sales from March. 

"Clean (beauty) is something already that we were saying is going to be important to watch," said Larissa Jensen, vice president and beauty advisor at NPD, a market research firm that tracks consumer trends. "I believe that the circumstances today have only accelerated that conversation and amplified the importance of it." —Melodie Warner 

Southwest Airlines' planes are "virtually empty," said CEO Gary Kelly. Still he believes the situation will improve in the coming months. 

"May will be better than April. I don't think June will be a good month, but hopefully, it will be a bit better than May," Kelly told CBS's "Face of the Nation."

"There's bookings in place," he said, "but those could easily be canceled. It's really one day at a time." Southwest Airlines has already received $3.2 billion in federal aid, and Kelly said he's applied for another government loan but, "we don't know if we'll take it."

"I think that we've got what we need to see our way through," he said.

Not everyone is so optimistic: Billionaire investor Warren Buffet announced on Saturday he was selling all of his stocks in airlines, including his 10% stake in Southwest Airlines. —Annie Nova

Many companies in the space industry have seen operations grind to a crawl in the past two months because of the coronavirus crisis. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told CNBC that this is only the "early days" of the crisis for an industry that saw a boom time over the past decade.

While he remains hopeful that some creative and well-funded companies may continue pushing forward, Beck warned, "This is a year-and-a-half slog, maybe even longer." Beck is one of the most experienced leaders among the latest generation of space ventures, having built Rocket Lab into a multifaceted company. —Melodie Warner 

Gilead Sciences' remdesivir drug will be in the hands of coronavirus patients as early as this week, the biotechnology company's CEO said Sunday. 

"We've donated the entire supply that we have within our supply chain and we did that because we acknowledge and recognize the human suffering, the human need here, and want to make sure nothing gets in the way of this getting to patients," Gilead Science CEO Daniel O'Day told CBS's "Face of the Nation."

Preliminary results from Gilead's own study showed at least 50% of the coronavirus patients treated with a five-day dosage of remdesivir improved. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted emergency use authorization for remdesivir to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. —Melodie Warner 

Online schools typically serve older students who are balancing work and family responsibilities. Now, these schools are attracting a wider audience, including recent high-school graduates who would have gone to a traditional four-year institution, pre-pandemic.

Online colleges have made great strides in their remote learning offerings over the last decade, while other schools are now struggling to get up to speed. Online schools have additional advantages, such as price, as well as shorter sessions, which allow students to begin sooner and finish faster. —Melodie Warner 

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said the White House has made no decision on providing further funding for the emergency loan program for small businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" whether a third round of funding is needed, Kudlow said "it may be" but did not commit to more assistance for PPP or funding for state and local governments. 

The initial $349 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program in the $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed in March was exhausted in a matter of days. The second round of the program, launched last Monday,  has so far provided loans worth more than $175 billion out of the total $310 billion Congress authorized in the latest relief package. —Melodie Warner 

More than 80 million American households still have cable or satellite television and are paying for live televised sports they haven't received for almost two months. About $20 of a standard monthly cable bill can be attributed to paying for sports, and New York Attorney General Letitia James argued this week that Americans shouldn't be forced to pay that money. 

Cable executives may be willing to give refunds to customers, but only if the programmers that they pay for sports give them refunds. If sports seasons are completely canceled, it's possible the leagues will refund programmers for TV fees. In that case, programmers would likely refund distributors and those distributors would credit consumers. —Melodie Warner 

Hospitalizations related to Covid-19 have started to decelerate in some cities, yet it could take the virus weeks to peak in more rural communities across the U.S., health officials warn. The virus also has the potential to be more deadly in many rural communities where a larger portion of the population are older and have underlying health conditions like obesity and diabetes that could put them at risk of serious illness or death.

It took less than three weeks for Hall County to become Nebraska's biggest hot spot of Covid-19 cases. The area reported its first case of coronavirus in late March, just as the outbreak was surging, and now has more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19 as of Friday. —Melodie Warner 

Vietnam reported its first confirmed coronavirus case in nine days on Sunday, bringing its reported positive cases to 271, its health ministry said. Vietnam is said to have implemented strict quarantine and contact tracing measures early on in the course of the pandemic, quarantining towns with suspected cases as early as February, using the help of the military and public surveillance. The country has reported no coronavirus deaths.  —Natasha Turak, Saheli Roy Choudhury

Swiss drugmaker Roche said on Sunday it expects to be able to produce "significantly more" than 100 million of its new antibody tests monthly by the end of 2020, doubling its current production.

Roche earlier on Sunday received an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving its test, which relies on taking intravenous blood samples to identify whether someone has previously been infected with the coronavirus and whether they have the antibodies to defend against it.

Roche said its Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has a specificity greater than 99.8%, meaning very few false-positive tests, and that it can help assess people's immune response to the virus. The company said it has already started shipping the new antibody test to top laboratories globally. —Natasha Turak, Saheli Roy Choudhury

Iran's death toll from the coronavirus increased by 47 to 6,203 from Saturday to Sunday, the country's health ministry said Sunday. Cases in Iran are the highest of any in the Middle East, increasing on Sunday to 97,424. —Natasha Turak, Saheli Roy Choudhury

Read CNBC's coverage from CNBC's Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Roche expects to make more than 100 million antibody tests monthly by end of 2020.