Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs, ensnared in the sweeping college-admissions scandal, had her prison sentence — set to begin next week — delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Janavs, sentenced five months behind bars for paying a fixer to get her daughters into the University of Southern California, had been ordered to surrender on Thursday but now may remain free until at least June 30, according to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton.

But the judge ruled against Janavs' bid to have her entire sentence served under house arrest.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented and continually evolving cause of concern and the Court is cognizant of the particular transmission risk in penitentiary facilities," Gorton wrote in a ruling handed down Thursday.

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U.S. White House COVID-19 task force members Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx will be keynote speakers at a one-day virtual COVID-19 conference to be held in July, the International AIDS Society announced.

AIDS 2020, the 23rd annual International AIDS Conference, was scheduled to be held in San Francisco from July 6-10, but the conference was moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

A one-day COVID-19 conference added to the end of AIDS 2020 will shine a “spotlight on the latest science, policy and practice of the pandemic,” according to Thursday's press release.

“Many of the global experts gathering for AIDS 2020: Virtual are also leading voices in SARS-CoV-2 virology, immunology, vaccines, clinical care and therapeutic guidelines, and trials,” wrote Anton Pozniak, the president of the IAS. “The virtual conference will provide a unique opportunity to help shape the evolving global response to COVID-19.”

The COVID-19 conference is accepting abstract submissions through May 25. Members of the public can register online for free to watch the conference.

The coronavirus outbreak could last for up to two years based on the trajectories of recent flu pandemics, according to a new study released by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

The report also warned that over the next 24 months, states, territories and tribal health authorities should prepare for periodic resurgences of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, including a large second wave of infections this fall.

The study found that the current outbreak is behaving similar to past influenza pandemics, including those that occurred in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. The researchers also cautioned that since only 5 percent to 15 percent of the U.S. population has been infected so far — significantly less than would be needed for so-called herd immunity — government officials should develop plans to cope with subsequent peaks in the disease.

"The goal is to help planners envision some of the situations that might present themselves later this year or next year so that they can take key steps now, while there's still time,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said in a statement.

The field hospital at New York City's Jacob K. Javits convention center is closing after the last coronavirus patients left. 

Dr. Chris Tanski, the chief medical officer at the Javits Center, told the Associated Press that the remaining eight patients left Friday afternoon.

A FEMA spokesperson told NBC News that "planning is ongoing for the drawdown of federal resources that are no longer needed due to the flattening of the curve." 

Nearly 1,100 patients were treated at the convention center to help alleviate strain on the city's hospitals. “We were able to offload some of the volume from the hospitals,” said Tanski, a doctor at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse who was part of a federal disaster response task force helping New York treat COVID-19 patients.

The first coronavirus patient admitted to Mount Sinai hospital in New York City was released following a 54-day stay, nearly half of which Rodrigo Saval spent intubated. 

Mount Sinai West celebrated the milestone with a huge sendoff. In a video posted on the hospital's Facebook page, doctors and nurses lined the hallway and cheered as Saval was wheeled toward the exit. He threw his hands in the air in triumph. 

Saval, a marathon runner from Chile, was admitted on March 7, according to NBC New York. Staff said there were times when his situation looked bleak. 

"I think we needed this win and it's such a blessing to see," a hospital employee told the outlet. "He's our personal mascot almost." 

Saval is the 500th coronavirus patient to be released from Mount Sinai West. He said he plans to stay in New York a little longer for rehab and then will return to Chile to see his family. 

Coronavirus R: Is this the crucial number? [BBC News]

Cruise ships set sail knowing the deadly risk to passengers and crew [The Wall Street Journal]

'A really miraculous story': 94-year-old Beatrice man defies virus odds [Beatrice Daily Sun]

Nearly 900 employees, 40 percent of the workforce, at a Tyson Foods pork-processing plant in Indiana have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The plant in Logansport halted operations April 25, one of several Tyson plants across the country that have voluntarily closed in an effort to help contain the spread of the virus.

The Cass County Health Department's administrator, Serenity Alter, said 890 employees at the plant have tested positive so far, and that a couple of hundred of others still need to be screened.

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Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, introduced a plan Friday to give hazard pay to workers on the front lines of the coronavirus fight. 

The 2012 presidential nominee’s “Patriot Pay” plan would provide temporary bonus pay of up to $12 an hour from May through July. A quarter of that pay would be given by employers and and three-quarters by the federal government and funded through a refundable payroll tax credit, the announcement said. 

“Health care professionals, grocery store workers, food processors, and many others — the unsung patriots on the frontline of this pandemic — every day risk their safety for the health and well-being of our country, and they deserve our unwavering support,” Romney said.

Romney, who was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during the president's impeachment trial earlier this year, was also the only Republican not invited earlier this month to serve on the president’s task force to reopen the U.S. economy. Senate Democrats also unveiled a plan this month to support frontline workers, giving them up to $13 an hour in extra pay.

More than a week has passed since Lyndsay Harrington has heard from her brother, who is locked up at a federal prison in California that houses inmates with health problems.

“We’re just so scared,” Harrington said.

She has good reason to worry.

Some 600 inmates at FCI Terminal Island, roughly 57 percent of the total inmate population, have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said. Five inmates have died after contracting COVID-19, including three in the last 48 hours, and at least 10 staff members have been infected.

Harrington said her brother is particularly vulnerable because he suffers from asthma and a thyroid condition.

“We don’t want this to turn into a death sentence for him,” she said of her brother, who is also bipolar.

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