Covid live updates: Connecticut lifts capacity limits on businesses; Manhattan apartment sales bounce back

March Madness may be a little quieter this year, but that isn’t stopping the NCAA from coming up with new ways for fans to cheer on their favorite teams.

For $100, sports fans can upload their picture and be represented visually in Lucas Oil Stadium as a cardboard cutout for this year’s Final Four and Championship Game. For an additional $35, they can have their cutout shipped to their home after the game.

March Madness will operate at 25% of fan capacity this year due to Covid restrictions. The cutouts will be spread out among the in-person, human fans to help with social distancing. It’s a similar strategy to the one put in place for the Super Bowl in February.

The NCAA says that proceeds from the program will benefit both the United Way’s Central Indiana COVID-19 Recovery and Rebound effort and Hilinski’s Hope. Last year’s March Madness tournament was among the first events to be canceled as coronavirus shutdowns hit the U.S.

—Jessica Golden

Marriott International announced that it will give employees four hours’ worth of pay to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.

The hospitality company said it is not requiring employees to get vaccinated but strongly encourages it. Along those lines, Marriott is providing education on the benefits of vaccination and will allow flexible scheduling for employees to make appointments.

“Our goal for the Vaccination Care Program is to remove potential obstacles to getting vaccinated so our associates can put their health first and have peace of mind,” said Dr. David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer for the company. 

–Rich Mendez

Manhattan brokers are saying that apartment discounts could end soon after sales soared 73% in February, CNBC’s Robert Frank reports.

February, which saw more than 1,110 sales contracts signed, marked the third straight month of year-over-year gains according to a report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel.

“This is a remarkable recovery from 2020, and a trend we began to see emerge from the time Biden was elected in November to the announcement of the first viable vaccines for Covid,” said Garrett Derderian, director of market intelligence for Serhant, a real estate brokerage firm.

Sales contracts in 2021 so far have topped $5 billion, according to Derderian.

–Rich Mendez

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced that she will lift a statewide order requiring people to wear masks beginning April 9, giving businesses enough time to create their own policies if necessary.

“While I’m convinced a mask mandate has been the right thing to do, I also respect those who object and believe this was a step too far in government overreach,” Ivey said during a press briefing.

While the Republican governor acknowledged other states had already lifted their mandates, she said the extended order would give Alabama more time to give people their first dose of vaccine.

— Noah Higgins-Dunn

Delta Air Lines will start recalling some 1,300 pilots on Friday who haven’t been flying during the pandemic so they can begin training. Delta said in January it would recall a group of 400, which aren’t included in the bidding that starts tomorrow.

“To provide context, the staffing plans over the past 15 months have swung rapidly from a growth trajectory, to significant contraction, followed by the largest pilot retirement event in airline history, a deal to avoid furloughs and now to recovery,” said Bob Schmelzer, Delta’s director of crew resources, planning, analytics and reporting in a memo to pilots on Thursday.

Because of those retirements, and the fact that many pilots that haven’t recently had FAA-mandated training, aviators may need to be certified on other aircrafts.

After a brutal year, consumers are warming to the idea of traveling again as bookings pick up steam. Passenger volumes are still less than half 2019 levels but numbers have recently ticked up as more Covid-19 vaccines have rolled out. In response, some airlines have started hiring pilots and flight attendants again.

Delta doesn’t expect the recovery to pre-pandemic levels to be immediate. John Laughter, Delta’s senior vice president of flight operations said in a memo to pilots on Friday that the carrier is “preparing to build back to 2019 levels of flying by summer 2023.”

—Leslie Josephs

Italy reportedly blocked a shipment of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to Australia on Thursday.

Reuters reported, citing two sources, that AstraZeneca had requested permission from Rome to ship around 250,000 doses from its Anagni plant. But the Italian government refused.

In January, the European Union placed temporary controls on the export of vaccines made inside the bloc. The controls will last until the end of March and give powers to EU member states to reject authorizing exports if the vaccine makers do not honor contracts.

A study conducted by JAMA Cardiology found that 0.6% of professional athletes in the U.S. suffer from inflammatory heart disease after recovering from their Covid-19 diagnosis.

Athletes from the MLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, NFL and WNBA were screened to test the prevalence of inflammatory heart disease during their quest to return-to-play after testing positive for Covid.

Of the 789 athletes screened, five had cardiac magnetic resonance imaging findings that suggested inflammatory heart disease. Three athletes had myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, and two had pericarditis, or swelling and irritation of the thin tissue surrounding the heart.

The study found the safe return to professional sports activity has thus far been achieved.

—Christian Nunley

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended his decision to rescind most of the state’s Covid-19 restrictions and mask mandate, despite President Joe Biden’s sharp criticism earlier this week when he called the move “Neanderthal thinking.”

Abbott told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the comment was “not the type of word that a president should be using.” The Republican governor also claimed the administration “has been releasing immigrants in South Texas that have been exposing Texans to Covid.”

The newly lifted restrictions “are not really that transformative” because the state’s mask mandate wasn’t enforced and businesses were already at 75% capacity, Abbott said.

“Maybe to people in New York it seems like this is a big difference,” Abbott told CNBC.

—Noah Higgins-Dunn

A global study has found a “dramatic” link between obesity and Covid-19 deaths, Reuters reports. Coronavirus fatality rates were found to be 10 times higher in nations where 50% or more of the adult population is overweight.

Countries like Japan and South Korea, which have very low rates of adult obesity, have reported comparatively low virus death rates. The United States and the United Kingdom, by contrast, report some of the highest adult obesity rates and Covid-19 death rates, according to the Reuters report.

The findings could help identify important comorbidity risk factors. The study analyzed Covid data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and obesity statistics from the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory.

—Sara Salinas

Because of the coronavirus crisis, millions of Americans are moving from the city to the suburbs.

But the pandemic-induced run on housing has fueled an affordability problem for many would-be buyers, despite record-low mortgage rates.

Now, homes in many states require a salary larger than buyers’ current median income.

Here’s a map that shows just how much money it takes to afford the average home in each state, according to career planning site Zippia.com. Nationwide, the median home price is $346,800.

—Jessica Dickler

Another 745,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected that figure to come in at 750,000.

Initial weekly jobless claims have plateaued to a degree in recent months, after waging a partial comeback from staggering, record unemployment last year when coronavirus shutdowns spurred widespread layoffs.

—Sara Salinas

UPS International CEO Scott Price explains how the company is transporting Covid-19 vaccines to four continents as part of its partnership with COVAX and Gavi, in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

—Terri Cullen

A new report by Infosys and the Milken Institute found that while the pandemic has widened the digital divide and the skill gap among workers, there are still a few silver linings about the future of work. Infosys President Ravi Kumar joined CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the results.

—Terri Cullen

Covid updates: Officials warn variants can hijack recovery; Apollo bets conventions come back stronger