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If the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers. And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided, the researchers estimated. Under that scenario, about 54,000 fewer people would have died by early May. (Glanz and Robertson, 5/20)

California recorded 132 new coronavirus-related fatalities Tuesday — the most in a single day since the pandemic began — as counties across the state continue cementing plans to reopen their economies. The highest number of deaths previously reported in a single day statewide was 117 in late April. Tuesday’s rise, which comes on a day when data from the previous weekend is typically released, pushed the state’s death toll past 3,400. The number of confirmed cases statewide has climbed to 83,864, according to data compiled by The Times. (Fry, Lin and Money, 5/20)

The number of coronavirus deaths in Alabama has topped 500. The May 20 9:30 a.m. numbers from the Alabama Department of Public Health shows 508 deaths, with 104 of those – roughly 20 percent – in Mobile County. The death count grew by 15 overnight.Other counties double-digit death counts are in Jefferson (78); Tallapoosa (57); Lee (32); Montgomery (24); Chambers (22); Shelby (19); and Lowndes, Butler and Etowah, each with 10. (Gore, 5/20)

Hard-hit Massachusetts passed a grim milestone Wednesday with more than 6,000 deaths now linked to the coronavirus, a tally reached two months after an 87-year-old Winthrop man became the state’s first reported victim of the pandemic. But signs of hope can be found amid the losses. Governor Charlie Baker said the seven-day average of positive tests for the virus remained under 10 percent, a statistic he called “a very promising development.” (MacQuarrie and Rosen, 5/20)

In New Jersey the death toll from the virus has climbed to more than 10,700. Governor Phil Murphy says this is after 168 more people died. He also reports that nearly another 1700 people tested positive for the coronavirus within the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the state to almost 150,400.Murphy says self-administered, self-swab COVID-19 tests will be offered at several Walmart stores and Quest Diagnostic locations in the state. (5/20)

On the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula off the southern coast of Queens, a house nestled in a gated community recently sold for $1.2 million, and visitors to a nearby beach club pay up to $5,715 to secure a cabana for the summer. Ten miles east, a shopping center lay vacant for four decades, broadcasting the area’s blight. (Goldenberg and Bocanegra, 5/20)