Live updates: White House adviser uncertain about economic rebound; CDC says coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ from surfaces

China’s ruling Communist Party declined to set an economic growth target for the first time in 26 years, a sign of the enormous toll the coronavirus outbreak is taking on the world’s second-largest economy.

But in delivering his “work report” at the grandiose opening of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Friday, Premier Li Keqiang instead shifted the party’s focus to the private sector and job creation.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — As Friday prayers began in the main mosque here last week, worshipers filled the front courtyard. Late arrivals squeezed into the back and into overflow areas, disregarding the tape on the stone floor showing people where to stand to maintain social distance.

It wasn’t just in Rawalpindi. Despite a rising number of coronavirus cases throughout Pakistan, officials in other major cities — Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore — described similar scenes during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends Saturday.

The large religious gatherings reflect the conflict between Pakistan’s powerful imams, who successfully lobbied the government last month to allow congregational prayers, and health officials, who warn that the country’s fragile health system could be overwhelmed if current trends continue.

President Trump declined to wear a protective face mask in public Thursday during a visit to a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan that is turning out ventilators and masks for use in the coronavirus pandemic, despite a request from the carmaker that he wear one and an executive order from the state’s Democratic governor requiring them.

Ford Motor Co. executives wore masks as they led the president on a tour, in accordance with company policy, but Trump said it was “not necessary here.” He suggested the issue is symbolic, but not in the lead-by-example manner his critics say he should view it.

Instead, Trump — who publicly prizes strength and symbols of masculinity including height, firm handshakes and deep voices — suggested he considers it unseemly or unpresidential to be seen in a mask. Trump said he had worn a mask in another area of the plant, “where they preferred it,” but declined to wear one in view of the cameras.

Sweden is still a long way from achieving herd immunity, according to a new study from the country’s public health agency.

The Scandinavian nation made a controversial bet to avoid large-scale lockdowns, keeping schools, restaurants and even nightclubs open as long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines. Last month, Sweden’s ambassador to the United States, Karin Ulrika Olofsdotter, said that the gamble was paying off and that Stockholm was on track to reach herd immunity as soon as May.

But according to data released Wednesday by Sweden’s Public Health Authority, only 7.3 percent of people in Stockholm had developed the antibodies required to fight covid-19 by late April. That’s nowhere near the 60 percent that some experts anticipate being the threshold for herd immunity.

The dispiriting report comes as rising death tolls are calling Sweden’s unorthodox methods into question. The nation now has a higher overall per-capita death rate than Norway, Denmark and Finland, all of which imposed strict lockdowns. One recent analysis found that between May 12 and May 19, Sweden had the highest per-capita number of coronavirus deaths in all of Europe.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced bipartisan resistance Thursday to her decision to direct federal stimulus money away from high-poverty public schools and to private schools serving wealthy students.

It’s one of several examples of DeVos using the relief funding to advance her longtime goals, including taxpayer support for private and religious schools. On Thursday, she defended her controversial decision on how to distribute the federal money.

She also has used $180 million from the stimulus fund for a “microgrant” program for parents to pay for educational expenses, including private school tuition. Critics say they are akin to vouchers.

Recent public health warnings about a severe and puzzling inflammatory syndrome linked to covid-19 have focused on children. But some doctors say they are also seeing the illness, similar to Kawasaki disease, in a few young adults.

A 20-year-old is being treated at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego; a 25-year-old has been diagnosed at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Medical Center; and several patients in their early 20s are hospitalized with the syndrome at NYU Langone in New York City.

Jennifer Lighter, a pediatric infectious diseases doctor at NYU Langone, said younger children with the condition seem to have symptoms that look more like traditional Kawasaki, which is characterized by inflammation of the blood vessels. But teens and young adults have more of an “overwhelming” response involving the heart and multiple organs.

Leaders of two of Minnesota’s largest faith groups are planning to resume indoor worship services next week in defiance of the governor’s order, saying it’s “extreme and prejudicial” to put religious gatherings in a reopening category similar to that of tattoo parlors or hair salons and subject them to limits stricter than those placed on retail stores.

In a conference-call news conference Thursday, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Catholic leader for the state, and the Rev. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, said they were fine with restrictions earlier in the pandemic. Now that there is a reopening plan, however, they said they can’t accept gathering limits for worship that surpass those affecting places such as the Mall of America.

The Trump administration, top Republicans and powerful corporate lobbyists mounted fresh opposition Thursday to extending enhanced unemployment benefits to the growing number of Americans who are out of work, raising the prospect of significant cuts to their weekly checks unless lawmakers act by the end of July.

The latest round of threats came hours after the U.S. government released dour new jobless figures showing an additional 2.4 million Americans sought unemployment aid just last week, further compounding an economic crisis that already rivals the Great Depression in its severity. Over the span of nine weeks, more than 38 million Americans have filed unemployment claims across the country because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since resuming their travel schedules, President Trump and Vice President Pence have focused on battleground states crucial to their reelection chances, staging official government events at a time when likely Democratic nominee Joseph Biden and his top surrogates are unable to safely return to the campaign trail.

Trump and Pence have used recent trips to thank factory and health-care workers and set the stage for reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, but their itineraries have highlighted the political imperatives that have informed their response to the crisis.

The president’s trips, in particular, have taken on clear campaign overtones as he pushes for states to move beyond the pandemic and restart their economies despite continuing public health concerns and the rising death toll. Supporters have lined the streets to greet his motorcade as they hold American flags and Trump campaign signs, disregarding social distancing rules and outnumbering a smaller set of protesters.