NPR: Coronavirus Cases Continue To Climb In The U.S. And Around The World
As of Sunday, nearly three months since the first confirmed case of the coronavirus was reported in the United States, there are over 746,300 confirmed cases of the virus in the country, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Cases of COVID-19 have been reported in at least 212 countries and territories, according to the World Health Organization. And according to the Johns Hopkins data, over 2,382,000 people have been infected globally. (Hagemann, 4/19)

CNN: US Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 40,000
The United States' coronavirus death toll topped 40,000 on Sunday afternoon, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The 40,461 deaths are among more than 755,533 coronavirus cases, the university's Covid-19 tracker says. The grim milestone was reached as Harvard researchers warned that if the country wants the economy to open back up -- and stay that way -- testing must go up to at least 500,000 people per day. (Holcombe and McLaughlin, 4/19)

The Hill: US Coronavirus Death Toll Surpasses 40,000 
Globally, the virus has infected more than 2.3 million people, as governments in many countries including the U.S. have ordered some non-essential businesses to close and residents to stay at home unless absolutely necessary. (Bowden, 4/19)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Fatality Rate Remains Unknown As Officials Plan To Reopen The Economy
With government officials debating how and when to reopen the economy, a fundamental question about the coronavirus pandemic remains unanswered: Just how deadly is this disease? The “case fatality rate” of covid-19 varies wildly from country to country and even within nations from week to week. In Germany, fewer than 3 in 100 people with confirmed infections have died. In Italy, the rate is almost five times higher, according to official figures. (Mooney, Eilperin and Achenbach, 4/17)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Counting Coronavirus Deaths Isn't Always Accurate. But Here's Why Experts Urge Its Importance 
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, deaths have been the statistic that has seemed the most immutable. Other numbers, particularly infection rates, are subject to a variety of factors: lag in results being reported, limits to the availability of testing and the question of whether symptoms ever get bad enough to prompt a test at all. All those caveats mean the 23,928 cases identified in the state as of Sunday represent an undercount, possibly a dramatically lower figure than the true infection rate. (Adelson and Russell, 4/18)

Politico: White House Still Scrambling To Cover Virus Treatment For The Uninsured
The White House pledged over two weeks ago to cover coronavirus treatment for uninsured Americans — but the administration still doesn't have a plan for how to do it. Trump officials are still grappling with key questions about how exactly to implement the treatment fund, including how to determine if a patient qualifies for the new federal dollars, an administration source said. Adding to the challenge, they’re still figuring out how to divvy up funding that hospitals and physicians say is desperately needed. (Luthi and Roubein, 4/20)

The Washington Post: First, The Coronavirus Pandemic Took Their Jobs. Then, It Wiped Out Their Health Insurance.
Gary Easley was worried as he took a bus to the pharmacy at West Virginia Health Right, a free clinic that has stood for decades in Charleston, W.Va. Normally, he goes to Walgreens and Kroger to get the nine prescriptions he relies on for his high blood pressure and high cholesterol, diabetes and mood swings, leg pain and lung trouble. (Goldstein, 4/18)

And in other health costs news —

Kaiser Health News: In Fine Print, HHS Appears To Ban All Surprise Billing During The Pandemic
Federal officials offering emergency funding to hospitals, clinics and doctors’ practices have included this stipulation: They cannot foist surprise medical bills on COVID-19 patients. But buried in the Department of Health and Human Services’ terms and conditions for eligibility is language that could carry much broader implications. It says “HHS broadly views every patient as a possible case of COVID-19,” the guidance states. (Huetteman, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Am I Protected If I Need COVID-19 Care?
A lot of insurance companies have said they’ll waive copayments and deductibles for COVID-19 care — as long as patients receive “in-network” care. But a lot of people have insurance policies with very limited networks. A podcast listener in Minnesota with a bronze-tier health plan and a $6,000 deductible wrote in wondering: What if I get sent to a place that my insurance doesn’t cover? What then? We put her question to one of the country’s top health insurance nerds: Sabrina Corlette, founder and co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. (Weissmann, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Trump Says Government Will Step Up Coronavirus Testing Efforts, After Governors Blast Federal Inaction
President Trump said on Sunday that the federal government is stepping up efforts to obtain vital supplies for coronavirus testing, hours after several governors from both parties faulted his administration for not doing enough to help states. Public health experts say testing on a larger scale is a crucial step before resuming normal social and economic activity in the country. But Trump defended the administration’s approach of leaving testing largely to states. (Harris, Sonmez and DeBonis, 4/19)

Politico: Trump Invokes DPA For Testing Swabs, Weeks After Reported Shortages
Asked why his administration waited for weeks to use the Defense Production Act on swabs, Trump alternately claimed that states have "millions coming in” already, that states can procure them on their own, and that governors “don't know quite where they are” and need the federal government’s help. (Ollstein, 4/19)

CBS News: Trump Says Defense Production Act Will Be Invoked To Make Swabs For Testing 
Mr. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act in March to require GM to produce ventilators. Mr. Trump on Sunday said the U.S. is the "king of ventilators" and now the focus will be on testing. Mr. Trump displayed a swab used in testing and said, thanks to the Defense Production Act, the U.S. will be getting swabs "very easily." (4/19)

Politico: Pence Presses Governors To Ramp Up Testing. They Push Back.
Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday said he believed it was possible to double coronavirus testing capacity with assistance from the nation's governors — who continue to claim they don't have what they need to do so. On “Fox News Sunday,“ Pence said the administration expects that 150,000 tests per day can be increased to 300,000 per day. To get there, he said, it would entail "working with governors to activate all of the laboratories in their states around the country that can do coronavirus testing." (Warmbrodt, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Testing Hampered By Disarray, Shortages, Backlogs
As President Trump and many of his advisers focus more attention on the nation’s economic reopening, lower ranking officials are trying to sort out the testing puzzle and individual labs are vying for supplies in a fractured and exhausted marketplace. “It is a little bit insane. Everyone is running around trying to get as much as they can from every vendor,” said David Grenache, the lab director at TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. “Laboratories are competing with each other to get needed resources,” he said, and often coming up short. The private sector hasn’t so far been able to deliver nearly enough tests to meet the huge demand in the U.S., more than six weeks after the Food and Drug Administration allowed private companies to manufacture test kits and put them to use without having to be approved. (Weaver and Ballhaus, 4/19)

Meanwhile —

Modern Healthcare: Abbott Ramping Up Test Manufacturing To Help Reopen The U.S.
Abbott Laboratories wants to ramp up production to at least 5 million tests in April, including COVID-19 diagnostic and serology tests, the company said on a first quarter earnings call on Thursday. The company committed to manufacturing 50,000 rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests per day beginning in April, and according to President and CEO Robert Ford, the company has at least met that goal every day so far and has beaten the number several days. He added that Abbott aims aiming to manufacture 2 million of the tests by June. (Ketchum, 4/17)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus Symptoms, But No Test: Wisconsin Patients Frustrated
As is the case with Hall, emotions have been running high throughout the COVID-19 crisis for many people experiencing symptoms and trying to navigate the health care system. Fraught with confusion about who gets tested and where, and who gets treated and when, the rapidly changing policies and protocols — and lack of consistency across hospitals — are leaving some of the state's patients feeling neglected and helpless. (Shelbourne and Rutledge, 4/18)

Detroit Free Press: A Family Ravaged By Coronavirus Struggled To Get Tests, Hospital Care
The man who raised Keith Gambrell, who loved him like a son and married his mother, died in a blue recliner of novel coronavirus in his Grosse Pointe Woods home. Gary Fowler, 56, went to the emergency rooms of three metro Detroit hospitals in the weeks leading up to his death, begging for a coronavirus test, begging for help because he was having difficulty breathing, but was repeatedly turned away, Keith said. (Shamus, 4/19)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And Reopening: Governors Say They Lack Tests As Trump Administration Says Supply Adequate
Governors facing growing pressure to revive economies decimated by the coronavirus said on Sunday that a shortage of tests was among the most significant hurdles in the way of lifting restrictions in their states. “We are fighting a biological war,” Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “We have been asked as governors to fight that war without the supplies we need.” In interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, Mr. Northam was among the governors who said they needed the swabs and reagents required for the test, and urged federal officials to help them get those supplies. (Rojas, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Governments Face Pressure To Ease Coronavirus Lockdowns
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, said it is unfair to suggest that states have enough testing to move forward with reopening, as some Trump administration officials have. “To try to push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing, and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests, not only from the federal government, but from every private lab in America and from all across the world. And we continue to do so.” (Ansari, Meichtry and Yap, 4/19)

Los Angeles Times: Governors Call Out Trump On Dearth Of Coronavirus Testing
Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam countered Trump, saying it was “delusional” to believe enough testing was in place to move quickly on easing restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the deadly virus. “We are fighting a biological war,” Northam said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that governors have been left “to fight that war without the supplies we need.” (Kaleem, King and Read, 4/19)

The Washington Post: Maryland And Virginia Governors Blast Trump Over Protests And Lack Of Coronavirus Testing As Cases Continue To Rise In The Capital Region
“Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests, not only from the federal government, but from every private lab in America and from across the world,” Hogan said. “It’s nowhere near where it needs to be.” The governors’ comments came as the District, Maryland and Virginia hit another milestone in the coronavirus pandemic Sunday, with a combined 24,200 confirmed cases and 930 deaths. (Lazo, Cox and Natanson, 4/19)

NBC News: 'Delusional,' 'Absolutely False': Governors Cry Foul On Trump Testing Claims
Public health experts have said testing would need to at least double or even triple to allow even a partial reopening of America's economy. Without such a massive increase, officials will lack a clear picture of who is infected, who can safely return to work, how and where the virus is spreading and whether stay-at-home orders can begin to be eased, those experts said. President Donald Trump insisted later Sunday that "I am right on testing." (Smith, 4/19)

CNN: US Coronavirus: Governors Say Testing Still Isn't Adequate Enough To Lift Restrictions 
Harvard researchers warned that if the country wants the economy to open back up -- and stay that way -- testing must go up to at least 500,000 people per day. Testing nationwide is currently at 150,000 per day, they said, adding that "If we can't be doing at least 500,000 tests a day by May 1, it is hard to see any way we can remain open." (Silverman, 4/20)

ABC News: 'Road Map' To Recovery Report: 20 Million Coronavirus Tests Per Day Needed To Fully Open Economy 
With President Donald Trump saying he wants to lift stay-at-home novel coronavirus orders and open up parts of the country, more than 45 economists, social scientists, lawyers and ethicists say there's a growing consensus pointing to a major step necessary to put Americans back to work: dramatically upscaling testing. In a report titled "Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience," set to be released on Monday, a blue-ribbon panel of thought leaders across the political spectrum called COVID-19 "a profound threat to our democracy, comparable to the Great Depression and World War II." (Whitcraft, Hutchinson and Shubailat, 4/19)

The Washington Post: With Help Of Robots, Maryland Medical School To Vastly Expand State’s Testing For Coronavirus — If Swabs Can Be Found
As the coronavirus began stampeding across Maryland in recent weeks, scientists tucked away in a University of Maryland research lab in Baltimore got an idea about how to put their high-tech robots to use. They could retool the machinery and significantly increase Maryland’s capacity to test people for covid-19 — testing that will be critical to any plan to eventually “reopen” the state. (Cohn and Broadwater, 4/19)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Lagged On Coronavirus Pandemic Plan, Despite Warnings
The first day President Trump mentioned the coronavirus in public, only one American was known to be infected. He assured the rest of the country it had no reason to worry. “We have it totally under control,” Trump said Jan. 22 from Davos, Switzerland. “It’s going to be just fine.” Behind the scenes, however, even some of his close aides thought the virus posed a much greater threat to the nation and to Trump. (Cloud, Pringle and Stokols, 4/19)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Labs Were Contaminated, Delaying Coronavirus Testing, Officials Say
Sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused contamination that rendered the nation’s first coronavirus tests ineffective, federal officials confirmed on Saturday. Two of the three C.D.C. laboratories in Atlanta that created the coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, resulting in the agency sending tests that did not work to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Early on, the F.D.A., which oversees laboratory tests, sent Dr. Timothy Stenzel, chief of in vitro diagnostics and radiological health, to the C.D.C. labs to assess the problem, several officials said. (Kaplan, 4/18)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump's Misdirection On Virus Testing, Deaths
President Donald Trump is falsely assigning blame to governors and the Obama administration for shortages in coronavirus testing. For much of the week, he was pretender to a throne that didn’t exist as he claimed king-like powers over the pandemic response and Congress. But by the weekend, he was again saying governors called the shots and they are the ones to blame — not the federal government, not him — for any testing problems. (Yen and Woodward, 4/20)

ABC News: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Warns Trump May Put US In 'Further Danger' During Coronavirus Crisis 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned against President Donald Trump's actions and rhetoric during the coronavirus public health crisis, insisting that his message could put the U.S. in "further danger." "If he continues to predicate the actions that we take on a false premise, then we're in further danger," Pelosi said during a wide-ranging interview on "This Week" with ABC News' Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. (Khan, 4/19)

The Washington Post: Americans At World Health Organization Transmitted Real-Time Information About Coronavirus To Trump Administration
More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials. (DeYoung, Sun and Rauhala, 4/19)

The Washington Post: U.S. Sent Millions Of Face Masks To China Early This Year, Ignoring Pandemic Warning Signs
U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars’ worth of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China in January and February with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. The move underscores the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat. (Eilperin, Stein, Butler and Hamburger, 4/18)

The New York Times: The U.S. Tried To Teach China A Lesson About The Media. It Backfired.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is better known for yelling at journalists than consoling them. But when Mr. Pompeo got on the phone with the publishers of The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on March 21, he said he was there to offer help, according to a person with direct knowledge of the call. And he acknowledged that the Trump administration’s latest shot at China had been, if not wrong, poorly timed. (Smith, 4/19)

The Hill: Foreign Powers Test US Defenses Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
U.S. adversaries are probing America's defenses as the world is preoccupied with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In the past two weeks, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have all moved to test Washington in the sea, in the air and on land as U.S. forces have become more restricted in movement amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19. “Exactly how distracted is the U.S. military? They want to know,” said Susanna Blume, the director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, referring to foreign countries. (Mitchell, 4/19)

The New York Times: Trump, The Head Of Government, Leans Into An Anti-Government Message
First he was the self-described “wartime president.” Then he trumpeted the “total” authority of the federal government. But in the past few days, President Trump has nurtured protests against state-issued stay-at-home orders aimed at curtailing the spread of the coronavirus. Hurtling from one position to another is consistent with Mr. Trump’s approach to the presidency over the past three years. Even when external pressures and stresses appear to change the dynamics that the country is facing, Mr. Trump remains unbowed, altering his approach for a day or two, only to return to nursing grievances. (Haberman, 4/20)

Politico: Trump Revs Up For A State-By-State Fight Over Coronavirus Shutdowns
President Donald Trump is preparing for a long battle with America’s governors to save himself from the political fallout from coronavirus. Over the next two weeks at the urging of the Trump administration, the map of the U.S. will start to resemble a patchwork quilt, with some states open for business while others remain locked down because of the spread of the virus. (Cook, 4/20)

NPR: Trump Often Picks Fights With Governors, But Americans Like Them More
Trump has seen a rally-around-the-flag bump that's smaller than other presidents have in times of national crisis. His average approval rating, according to RealClearPolitics, is just 46%, with 51% disapproving. Compare that to Cuomo. The latest Siena College Research poll shows 87% of New Yorkers approve of the job he's doing in handling the coronavirus, despite the large number of cases New York has had. Just 41% of New Yorkers approve of Trump's handling of the pandemic. (Montanaro, 4/20)

The Hill: Trump: Some Governors Have Gone Too Far On Coronavirus Restrictions 
President Trump on Sunday said he believes some governors have "gone too far" in imposing restrictions meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Trump told reporters at a White House briefing that he did not have an issue with the protesters who have flouted social distancing guidelines to voice displeasure with the restrictions, which have shuttered businesses and spiked unemployment. (Samuels, 4/19)

The Associated Press: Lockdown Tensions Grow As People Seek To Resume Work Or Play
The coronavirus is touching all levels of society and increasing tensions as governments start to ease restrictions that health experts warn should be done gradually to avoid a resurgence of the illness that has killed more than 165,000 people. The mounting pressure was evident in the United States. The Trump administration says parts of the nation are ready to begin a gradual return to normalcy. Yet some state leaders say woefully inadequate federal action, like a lack of testing supplies, is hindering their response to the illness. (Perry and Weissert, 4/20)

Reuters: More U.S. Protests Call For Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions As Governors Push Back
An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia to protest Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. Despite pleas from rally organizers to wear face coverings or masks as public health authorities recommend, many did not. “Shutting down businesses by picking winners and losers in which there are essential and non-essential are violations of the state and federal constitution,” rally organizer Tyler Miller, 39, an engineer from Bremerton, Washington, told Reuters. (Chiacu and Goldberg, 4/19)

ABC News: Residents Protest Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Orders In 5 States
Opposition to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders has continued to build from coast to coast, with at least five states the site of protests Sunday. Protesters sporting masks and signs took to their state capitols, while others honked their car horns during gridlock demonstrations calling on their governors to open up their states. (Deliso, 4/19)

ABC News: Hundreds Gather In California To Protest Stay-At-Home Orders
More than 200 protestors gathered in Huntington Beach, California, in what was the latest demonstration in the United States against stay-at-home orders under the novel coronavirus pandemic. The "March for Freedom" event took place Friday afternoon at the intersection of Walnut and Main streets in the downtown area of Huntington Beach, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. (Torres, 4/18)

The Associated Press: Lockdown Politics Increasingly Pit Economic, Health Concerns
The global health crisis is taking a nasty political turn with tensions worsening between governments locked down to keep the coronavirus at bay and people yearning to restart stalled economies and forestall fears of a depression. Protesters worrying about their livelihoods and bucking infringements on their freedom have taken to the streets in some places. A few countries are acting to ease restrictions, but most of the world remains unified in insisting it’s much too early to take more aggressive steps. (Weissert, Colvin and Jordans, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Pro-Gun Activists Using Facebook Groups To Push Anti-Quarantine Protests
A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations are being engineered by a network of conservative activists. The Facebook groups target Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, and they appear to be the work of Ben Dorr, the political director of a group called “Minnesota Gun Rights,” and his siblings, Christopher and Aaron. (Stanley-Becker and Romm, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: More Americans Fear Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions Too Soon, WSJ/NBC Poll Says
Americans are worried about lifting stay-at-home orders too quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has dramatically upended life in a month marked by business shutdowns, job losses and illness, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Nearly six in 10 in the survey said they were concerned that the country would move too fast to loosen restrictions aimed at slowing the outbreak, compared with about three in 10 who said the greater worry was the economic impact of waiting too long. (Lucey, 4/19)

Politico: Poll: Majority Fear Coronavirus Restrictions Will Be Lifted Too Soon
There were partisan divides on the topic, some of which have been reflected in recent protests around the nation in places like Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. While a clear majority of Democrats (77 percent) and independents (57 percent) are more worried about the coronavirus, Republicans are very much divided on the issue — with 48 percent expressing more concern about the economy and 39 percent more worried about the pandemic. Different states, of course, have different restrictions, some much stricter than others. (Cohen, 4/19)

NBC News: In New Poll, 60 Percent Support Keeping Stay-At-Home Restrictions To Fight Coronavirus
"We have not seen a change at all" for Trump, said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his colleagues at Hart Research Associates. But Hart cautions that a long-lasting crisis could change things for the president. "In every crisis, we go through this coming-together phase. And then we come to the recrimination phase," he said. "President Trump faces some tough sledding ahead in the recrimination phase." (Murray, 4/19)

The Washington Post: Americans Need Confidence Before Life Can Return To Normal Amid The Coronaviirus Pandemic
Danny Meyer — restaurateur and founder of Shake Shack — said he is already envisioning the changes he will make when he finally gets the green light to reopen his restaurant empire. Kitchen employees will have to wear masks and not only have their temperature taken, but also look their manager in the eye and verbally confirm they are feeling healthy. He is imagining other tweaks, too, to help reassure guests — from maitre d’s with laser thermometers to a coat check overhaul to a more European-style payment system that doesn’t require handing a credit card to the server. (Parker, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: As Politicians Lean On Disease Modelers In Health Crisis, Some Scientists Fear A Backlash
Politicians and government officials trying to chart a course through the global coronavirus pandemic have relied heavily on a specialized set of epidemiological experts: disease modelers. As they make decisions affecting the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of citizens, world leaders have turned to projections of infections and deaths by these scientists, who by their own admission are working with a bewildering array of unknowns as they build their forecasts. (Colchester, 4/19)

ProPublica: Coronavirus Advice From Abroad: 7 Lessons America’s Governors Should Not Ignore As They Reopen Their Economies
After insisting that he had absolute power to decide when to reopen the American economy, President Donald Trump has turned over to all of you what he initially called “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.” Trump is often guilty of hyperbole, but he’s right in this case. Figuring out how and when to let people go back to work during an outbreak of life-threatening disease is the most consequential decision any of you will ever face. You’ve already seen the stakes in New York, New Jersey and Michigan. (Engleberg, Chen and Rotella, 4/18)

Politico: Some States Are Taking Small Steps To Reopen. Here's What They're Doing.
Governors of all stripes are taking it slow and steady when it comes to reopening their economies — notwithstanding spreading protests and the president's call for liberation. But a handful of state leaders have taken baby steps toward a return to semi-normalcy in recent days. Here's a snapshot of what they're doing. (Murray, 4/18)

ABC News: Country Grows More Pessimistic About A Return To Normalcy Post-Coronavirus: POLL 
Among those Americans who say their daily routine has changed due to the coronavirus, 31% believe a return to normalcy will come by June 1, compared to 44% who said the same at the beginning of this month. The June 1 date sharply divides partisans with 51% of Republicans and only 17% of Democrats thinking they will resume normal activities by then. (Karson, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: How San Francisco, LA Handled 1918 Spanish Flu
The big, striving city on the south coast moved fairly quickly at the first signs of danger — shutting down bars, pool halls, sporting events and more. Its rival to the north waited at least a week longer to order closures, as its leaders went mask-happy, betting that their best weapon against the onrushing contagion was face coverings, and going slow on what is now referred to as “social distancing.” (Rainey and Lin, 4/19)

ProPublica: Health Officials Recommended Canceling Events With 10-50 People. Then 33,000 Fans Attended A Major League Soccer Game.
On March 6, at 2:43 p.m., the health officer for Public Health — Seattle & King County, the hardest-hit region in the first state to be slammed by COVID-19, sent an email to a half-dozen colleagues, saying, “I want to cancel large group gatherings now.” The county’s numbers — 10 known deaths and nearly 60 confirmed cases as of late morning — were bad and getting worse. Many local events had already been called off for fear of spreading the coronavirus. (Armstrong, Gutman and Kamb, 4/19)

NBC News: Even After 'Flattening The Curve,' Americans Face A Long Road Back To Pre-Coronavirus Normalcy
After flattening the curve, Americans should expect a number of curveballs. Once the immediate crush of COVID-19 cases subsides, epidemiologists say a "post-peak" purgatory lies ahead until a vaccine can be discovered and disseminated that would allow a return to normalcy. (Sacks, 4/18)

The New York Times: Covid-19 Antibody Test, Seen As Key To Reopening Country, Does Not Yet Deliver
A law firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., tested employees who hoped, with the prick of a finger, to learn if they might be immune. In Laredo, Texas, community leaders secured 20,000 of the new tests to gauge how many residents had been infected. In Chicago, a hospital screened firefighters to help determine whether they could safely stay on the job. In recent weeks, the United States has seen the first rollout of blood tests for coronavirus antibodies, widely heralded as crucial tools to assess the reach of the pandemic in the United States, restart the economy and reintegrate society. (Eder, Twohey and Mandavilli, 4/19)

The Washington Post: FDA Did Not Review Many Coronavirus Antibody Tests Flooding The Market
The Food and Drug Administration, criticized for slowness in authorizing tests to detect coronavirus infections, has taken a strikingly different approach to antibody tests, allowing more than 90 on the market without prior review, including some marketed fraudulently and of dubious quality, according to testing experts and the agency itself. Antibody, or serological, tests are designed to identify people who may have overcome covid-19, including those who had no symptoms, and developed an immune response. They are not designed to detect active infections. (McGinley, 4/19)

Politico: Cuomo Says State To Test Thousands For Covid-19 Antibodies
New York will begin testing thousands of residents this week for Covid-19 antibodies as the state moves to reopen the economy in the coming weeks and months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday. With data suggesting the coronavirus has passed its apex in New York, Cuomo said health officials will begin conducting an initial 2,000 antibody tests per day — or 14,000 a week — on a random sample of New Yorkers in addition to its diagnostic testing for the virus. (Young, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: To Get Back To Work, Companies Seek Coronavirus Tests For Workers
Companies from Amazon.com Inc. to General Motors Co. are exploring ways to test their employees for Covid-19 before they come in to work. Regular tests for workers could keep exposure to sick employees to a minimum and boost employees’ confidence about coming back to work, corporate medical advisers and human-resources executives say. Yet companies face hurdles in rapidly building testing capacity. For one, tests remain tough to obtain in large quantities, those people say, and the practice raises potential issues of privacy and liability. (Krouse, 4/20)

Los Angeles Times: This Bay Area Town Is Among The First To Offer Coronavirus Testing To Every Resident 
The remote Bay Area town of Bolinas is among the first communities in the world to attempt to test all of its residents for the novel coronavirus. Bolinas, population 1,600, will offer free tests Monday through Thursday to residents 4 years and older up, according to a statement from UC San Francisco, whose staffers will administer the tests. (Newberry, 4/19)

ABC News: Coronavirus Testing Only Part Of The Solution To Reopen US: Dr. Deborah Birx
While acknowledging the importance of testing, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Sunday that it is only part of the solution to reopen the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. "One of those critical -- critical -- legs of the stool is testing," she said on ABC’s "This Week" Sunday, but added that monitoring cases and expanding testing are the other two elements. (Arnholz, 4/19)

And testing is only one part of the steps needed to get the country back to normal —

NBC News: 'Army' Of Contact Tracers Will Be Needed In Coronavirus Fight. Experts Say That Could Cost Billions.
With data continuing to suggest New York is "flattening the curve" in the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this week that the next phase in the battle for his state and others is on the horizon: contact tracing.But it will come at a hefty cost. The labor-intensive commitment involves identifying those who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and interviewing them to find out where they have gone and whom they’ve come in contact with, an effort that has been effective in controlling other outbreaks, including tuberculosis and SARS. (Ortiz, 4/17)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Meet The 'contact Tracers': Group Of Workers Vital To Prevent Coronavirus Resurgence In Louisiana 
When a strange new virus begins spreading through a community, state and local health departments know who to call: The contact tracers. They are the men and women who meticulously track down the friends, family and colleagues of infected people to warn them they’re in danger and urge them to quarantine. (Sledge, 4/18)

CBS News: On The Trail Of COVID-19: Contact Tracing The Virus
When we talk about fighting the COVID-19 virus, we hear a lot about social distancing, self-isolation and vaccines. What's weird is that you don't hear much about another incredibly important tool in fighting epidemics: contact tracing. It means detective work. When somebody tests positive, you ask for the names of anyone they've been in contact with recently. (4/19)

Politico: Trump Administration Will Require Nursing Homes To Report Covid-19 Cases
American nursing homes will now be required to report coronavirus cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as to patients and their families, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said Sunday. The directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mark a significant change in practice. The CDC has not formally tracked the number of Covid-19 cases that spread inside homes for vulnerable elderly patients. Thousands have died. (Perez, 4/19)

NPR: Nursing Home COVID-19 Reporting Rules To Be Strengthened
The new rules also require nursing homes to report COVID-19 cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the CDC works to build a nationwide database of the occurrence of the illness. Nursing homes are already required to report such data to state and local public health officials. "Nursing homes have been ground zero for COVID-19," CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement announcing the new rules, which she described as an effort to provide "transparent and timely information to residents and their families." (Katkov, 4/20)

NBC News: Federal Officials Announce New Coronavirus Rules For Nursing Homes To Boost Transparency
The two policy changes come in the wake of reporting by NBC News that families with loved ones in nursing homes complain that they are "in the dark" about COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities. The homes have also faced criticism from Democratic lawmakers and public health experts who have said the federal government should have been tracking COVID-19 cases from the beginning of the outbreak. (Strickler and Stelloh, 4/19)

The Washington Post: California, Florida Release Names Of Nursing Homes With Coronavirus As Pressure Mounts
Health officials in California and Florida this weekend published lists of nursing homes in their states that have had coronavirus cases, joining other states that have released at least partial lists. Although most states rely solely on the long-term-care facilities to notify residents and their families of such cases, officials in California and Florida made the nursing homes’ names public after facing pressure to be more transparent with families and to better understand the virus’s spread. (Kornfield, 4/19)

Boston Globe: Government Actions, Guidance Fail To Keep Pace With Health Crisis In Nursing Homes 
Earlier this month, Governor Charlie Baker activated a dozen National Guard teams to test for COVID-19 at hard-hit nursing homes across Massachusetts in an effort to help them contain the deadly outbreak. Yet soon after the Guard completed its testing, managers of the homes noticed a disturbing trend: Large numbers of front-line employees stopped coming to work, leaving their beleaguered facilities severely understaffed. (Weisman and Krantz, 4/18)

The New York Times: 70 Died At A Nursing Home As Body Bags Piled Up. This Is What Went Wrong.
When the coronavirus outbreak hit one of the largest and most troubled nursing homes in the Northeast, coughing and feverish residents were segregated into a wing known as South 2. The sick quickly filled the beds there, so another wing, West 3, was also turned into a quarantine ward. But the virus kept finding frail and older residents, and one culprit became clear: The workers themselves were likely spreading it as they moved between rooms and floors, outfitted with little or no protective equipment. (Tully, Rosenthal, Goldstein and Gebeloff, 4/19)

The Associated Press: ’Under Siege': Overwhelmed Brooklyn Care Home Tolls 55 Dead
As residents at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, began dying in late February from a coronavirus outbreak that would eventually take 43 lives, there was little sign of trouble at the Cobble Hill Health Center, a 360-bed facility in an upscale section of Brooklyn. Its Facebook page posted a cheerful story encouraging relatives to quiz their aging loved ones about their lives, and photos of smiling third graders at a nearby school making flower arrangements for residents. (Condon, Sedensky and Peltz, 4/20)

ABC News: Inside Nursing Homes, Coronavirus Brings Isolation And 7,300 Deaths; Outside, Families Yearn For News 
Throughout March, sirens blared day and night in Brooklyn, as paramedics responded to the Cobble Hill Health Center. In Virginia's Henrico County, firefighters saw 911 calls spike from nearby Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. And in rural western New Jersey, an anonymous tip came to police about a body being stored in a shed outside the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center. (Mosk, Romero, Pecorin and Freger, 4/19)

The Associated Press: Nations Seek To Ease Nursing Home Loneliness Yet Keep Safe
Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes just wanted to do the humane thing. After so many frail and elderly nursing home residents had been held in seclusion from their loved ones in the first weeks of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Wilmes said her government decided to allow one visitor — in good health — per person. “People can die of loneliness,” Wilmes told parliament on Thursday. “Sustained isolation has consequences.” (Casert and Charlton, 4/20)

NPR: Nursing Homes Concerned About Accepting COVID-19 Patients From Hospitals
In some parts of the U.S., the desperate need to slow the spread of the coronavirus is coming into conflict with the scramble to find more hospital beds. Nursing homes have been the sites of some of the earliest — and deadliest — outbreaks of COVID-19. Some people who run such facilities are understandably leery of accepting new patients who might spread the virus. (Jaffe, 4/20)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Deaths Mounted At Nursing Homes Before State Took Strong Action
Kemp on April 1 dispatched the National Guard statewide to inspect and clean long-term care facilities, and so far they have reached more than 370. On April 8, he ordered senior care homes to take aggressive steps to curb the virus, but by then the outbreak had killed at least 81 residents of nursing homes and assisted living communities. On Monday, Kemp said testing would become more widely available, but the virus has crept into so many facilities that state action may be too little, too late for thousands of Georgia seniors. (Teegardin, 4/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Data Show Rapid Spread Of COVID-19 In Nevada Nursing Homes 
Nevada has recorded 111 more COVID-19 cases and three more deaths from the disease in nursing homes, assisted living centers and other institutions since it unveiled a new tracking tool on Monday. The data published on the Department of Health and Human Services’ nvhealthresponse.nv.gov website showed on Friday afternoon that 166 residents and 123 staff members have been infected with the new coronavirus in 42 facilities across the state. (Erickson, 4/17)

New Hampshire Public Radio: New Hampshire Health Agency To Expand Testing At Long-Term Care Facilities 
New Hampshire State Epidemiologist Dr. Ben Chan says the state's health agency is changing its approach to testing at long-term care facilities. Until this week, the state encouraged facilities to only test those who were symptomatic. (McDermott, 4/19)

Kaiser Health News: Before ‘Tidal Wave’ Of Illness, Nursing Home Thought It Had COVID-19 Contained
More than 20 patients have died. Dozens more are still hospitalized. And residents who had already been sent back to a nursing home in Gallatin, Tennessee, have turned up with new cases of COVID-19. An investigation finds that the facility downplayed the outbreak to first responders on 911 calls in late March. But the nursing home administrator told WPLN News that the coronavirus was unstoppable in Tennessee’s largest outbreak yet. (Farmer, 4/20)

The New York Times: White House And Democrats Near Deal On Aid For Small Businesses
The White House and congressional Democrats on Sunday closed in on an agreement for a $450 billion economic relief package to replenish a depleted emergency fund for small businesses and to expand coronavirus testing around the country, with votes on the measure possible early this week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin described the broad outlines of the package in an appearance on CNN on Sunday. The agreement would include $300 billion to replenish the emergency fund, called the Paycheck Protection Program; $50 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster relief fund; $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for testing. (Stolberg and Rappeport, 4/19)

The Associated Press: Trump, Congress Near Deal On Small Business, Hospital Aid
The Senate is scheduled for a pro forma session Monday, but no vote has been set. The House announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a vote on the pending package, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. With small-business owners reeling during a coronavirus outbreak that has shuttered much economic activity, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was hopeful of a deal that could pass Congress quickly and get the Small Business Administration program back up by midweek. (Yen and Mascaro, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration, Congressional Leaders Close To Deal On Billions In New Virus Aid
The deal would add about $310 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, which was swamped by demand in the three weeks since Congress created it as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill. It also would add $60 billion to a separate emergency loan program for small businesses that is out of money, too, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on CNN. (Werner and Stein, 4/19)

Politico: Congress, Trump Administration Close To Deal On New Aid Package
Congress has faced pressure to pass PPP funding unanimously, as soon as possible. That pressure has mounted with reports that more than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs over the past month. But Democrats want some of the money to be set aside for communities with few banking institutions. And they’ve pushed for more money for state governments, local governments and hospitals. Any member can object to a deal, so congressional leaders would need to run it by their members to see how to pass the legislation. It’s an open question whether the bill would require a roll call vote if someone objected to its passage. (McCaskill, Everett and Dugyala, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Mnuchin, Democrats Say They Are Close On Small-Business Funding Agreement
Mr. Mnuchin said the agreement was expected to include $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion to expand testing for the virus nationwide, which Democrats have pressed for. The small-business relief, known as the Paycheck Protection Program, was part of the roughly $2 trillion stimulus bill and is aimed at helping firms cover payroll and other essential expenses for roughly two months. Loans can be forgiven if businesses maintain the size of their workforce. (Peterson, 4/19)

NPR: Mnuchin: Agreement On $300 Billion For Small-Business Loan Program
"I think we're making a lot of progress," Mnuchin said on Sunday, noting that he has had multiple conversations with Senate and House leadership in recent days. He later added, "I'm hopeful we could get a deal done today." (Grisales, 4/19)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

The New York Times: No Fight Over Red Ink Now, But Virus Spending Will Force Tough Choices
The deficit hawks have had their wings clipped. No one wants to hear alarms raised about the dangers of staggering government spending during a monstrous threat to public health and the economy. Any such concerns have been silenced and set aside as the federal government throws open the spigots in an unstinting effort to protect both American lives and the nation’s financial underpinnings. “It hasn’t been a prominent topic of conversation, I think it is fair to say,” conceded Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania and a longtime fiscal conservative, about the potential hazards of compounding an already spiraling federal deficit in response to a crippling pandemic. (Hulse, 4/18)

Politico: A Watchdog Out Of Trump's Grasp Unleashes Wave Of Coronavirus Audits
Lawmakers handed President Donald Trump $2 trillion in coronavirus relief — and then left town without activating any of the powerful new oversight tools meant to hold his administration accountable. But with little fanfare, Congress’ independent, in-house watchdog is preparing a blizzard of audits that will become the first wide-ranging check on Trump’s handling of the sprawling national rescue effort. (Cheney, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: CARES Act Grants Could Spark False Claims Act Issues
While CMS Administrator Seema Verma touted that Congress' COVID-19 provider grant funds would have "no strings attached," agreeing to the assistance could open providers up to False Claims Act liability risks. Many providers on April 10 received part of a $30 billion fund created in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, as well as a list of terms and conditions from HHS for keeping the money. (Cohrs, 4/18)

The Associated Press: Battleground Power Plays Rage As Everyday Politics Go Quiet
Door-knocking? Over. Local party activity? Some Facebook traffic, if that. Across an arc of vital swing states, the coronavirus has put politics on an uneasy pause. Instead, political fights among state leaders from Iowa to Pennsylvania over the handling of the pandemic’s impact are raging as it spreads over this electoral heartland. (Beaumont, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Intensifies Legal Tussle Over Voting Rights 
Intense court battles over voting rights and election security always promised to be part of the 2020 election cycle, but the coronavirus has added new urgency to the cases, which are multiplying nationwide. This month’s fight over when and how Wisconsin voters would cast their ballots marked the unofficial start of the litigation campaign. In the two weeks since, courts in several other states have issued notable decisions about conducting elections during a pandemic, and a host of new lawsuits has been filed. (Kendall and Corse, 4/19)

Politico: Will The Pandemic Keep Third Parties Off The 2020 Ballot?
The pandemic may have robbed Donald Trump of a growing economy. It may have trapped Joe Biden in his basement. But it may yet do something even worse to the Libertarian and Green party nominees: Keep them off the ballot in many of this year’s key states. In 2016, the Libertarian Party was on the general election ballot in all 50 states; this year, it has secured ballot access in just 35. Similarly, the Green Party—which in 2016 had its best election ever by making the ballot in 44 states, with a further three states granting the party’s candidate official write-in status—has qualified for the November ballot in only 22 states. (Scher, 4/19)

Politico: Trump Money Machine Overcomes Coronavirus In March
The Republican National Committee raised a record $24 million last month, an early indication that President Donald Trump’s fundraising machine could be able to withstand the economic collapse brought on by the coronavirus. Despite a global pandemic that has shuttered much of the U.S. economy, the RNC’s total represented its best March fundraising performance in history. The figures will be part of a federal campaign finance filing due Monday. (Isenstadt, 4/20)

Stat: Novartis Steps Up To Study Of Hydroxychloroquine In Covid-19 
The drug giant Novartis said Monday it would conduct a 450-person study to determine if hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by many pundits and President Trump, can effectively treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The study will be a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, the medical gold standard in which patients will be assigned one of three options: hydroxychloroquine, the combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, or placebo. (Herper, 4/20)

Reuters: Novartis, U.S. Drug Regulator Agree To Malaria Drug Trial Against COVID-19
The decades-old generic medicine got FDA emergency use authorization this month for its unapproved use for coronavirus disease, but so far there is no scientific proof it works. There are currently no approved COVID-19 medicines. Novartis plans to start recruiting 440 patients for its Phase III, or late-stage, trial within weeks at more than a dozen U.S. sites. Results will be reported as soon as possible, the company added. (Miller, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Hydroxychloroquine And Other Autoimmune Drugs Don’t Fully Protect Against Coronavirus, Early Data Suggest
Dozens of people taking hydroxychloroquine and other treatments for chronic rheumatologic diseases have become infected with Covid-19, according to an analysis of emerging data that is a sign the drugs may not protect people from the new coronavirus. More than five dozen people with chronic ailments like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis were taking medications such as hydroxychloroquine before being diagnosed with the coronavirus, according to data compiled by the Global Rheumatology Alliance, a coalition of rheumatologists, researchers and patients, and published in a medical journal Thursday. (Hopkins, 4/18)

Boston Globe: 'Balancing The Potential For Benefit With The Potential For Harm’: How Boston Hospitals Are Using Hydroxychloroquine On Coronavirus Patients 
Although there are no proven cures or treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, one drug has drawn more attention and controversy than the rest: the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. Touted as a potential “game changer” by President Trump, the drug has gained widespread use as an experimental therapy for COVID-19 patients, despite meager evidence of its effectiveness. (Pan, 4/17)

Politico: Trump’s Wild West Approach To Virus Cure-Alls Is A Game-Changer For Drugmakers
President Donald Trump’s habit of touting potential coronavirus cures during daily White House briefings has changed the game for drugmakers, who are dropping their usually secretive ways to aggressively court public opinion. From Gilead releasing anecdotal results on the drug remdesivir to Johnson & Johnson’s new reality series on the making of its experimental vaccine, pharmaceutical companies are seeking to shape the narrative like never before. The PR push could raise false hope about therapies that don't end up working, or even put pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to approve drugs and vaccines whose effectiveness isn't clear. (Owermohle, 4/17)

WBUR: NIH Launches Effort To Speed Up Development Of COVID-19 Treatments 
In an bid to help speed up the development of potential treatment options and a vaccine for COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health on Friday announced a new public-private research partnership. The new initiative will be spearheaded by the NIH but also include the Food and Drug Administration, other parts of the federal government and a list of 16 companies that includes some of the biggest players in the pharmaceutical industry. Among the companies participating in the effort are Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck. (Pao, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: Amid Pandemic, FDA Seizes Cheaper Drugs From Canada
The Food and Drug Administration in the past month has stepped up seizures of prescription drugs being sent to American customers from pharmacies in Canada and other countries, according to operators of stores in Florida that facilitate the transactions. While seizures at the nation’s international mail facilities have periodically spiked during the past two decades, the latest crackdown is distressing many older customers whose goal is to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic. (Galewitz, 4/20)

Reuters: Status Of Upcoming Vaccines, Drugs And Other Treatments In The Battle Against COVID-19
With much of the world living in lockdown,  the spread of the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that was first detected in China late last year is beginning to slow in some places. As of April 18, 2.4 million had been infected and 165,000 killed  by COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. While a safe, effective vaccine is still more than a year away, researchers are rushing to repurpose existing drugs and non-drug therapies as well as testing promising experimental drugs that were already in clinical trials. Even moderately effective therapies or combinations could dramatically reduce the crushing demand on hospitals and intensive care units, changing the nature of the risk the new pathogen represents to populations and healthcare systems. (Soares, 4/13)

USA Today: 'Tuskegee Always Looms In Our Minds': Some Fear Black Americans, Hardest Hit By Coronavirus, May Not Get Vaccine
David Graham is a nurse practitioner who spends his days and nights treating coronavirus patients. He's a 41-year-old black man who learned in high school how doctors failed to treat hundreds of black men in a federal study for their syphilis, so he isn't inclined to trust the government to get a vaccine for the pandemic right.  African Americans, who are being infected and killed by COVID-19 at a much higher rate than whites, are 40% less likely to get flu shots,a study out last year showed, and some fear they will be reluctant to get the coronavirus vaccine when one is released. A historical distrust of the health care system, which has far fewer physicians of color and a record of discrimination and mistreatment, gets much of the blame, experts said. (O'Donnell, 4/19)

The New York Times: Fears Of Ventilator Shortage During Coronavirus Pandemic Unleash A Wave Of Innovations
Fears of a ventilator shortage have unleashed a wave of experimentation at hospitals around the country that is leading to some promising alternatives to help sustain patients. Doctors at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island have been using machines designed for people with sleep apnea to keep scores of coronavirus patients breathing, and engineers at New York University have transformed hooded hair salon dryers into personal negative pressure chambers that deliver oxygen and limit the spread of aerosolized virus, lowering the infection risks for health care workers and other patients. (Jacobs, 4/17)

Politico: Why New Jersey’s Ventilator Guidelines May Favor Younger, Whiter Patients
Lawmakers in New Jersey, which is quickly becoming the new epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic, are worried new emergency triage guidelines for the state’s hospitals could push younger, whiter patients to the front of the line. Hospital resources are running low, and the guidelines instruct facilities to give ventilators to those most likely to survive in the event the state’s health system is overrun by Covid-19 patients. That may mean African Americans, who are more likely to have other conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, may lose out if ventilators must be rationed. (Sutton and Sitrin, 4/19)

The New York Times: An Overlooked, Possibly Fatal Coronavirus Crisis: A Dire Need For Kidney Dialysis
For weeks, U.S. government officials and hospital executives have warned of a looming shortage of ventilators as the coronavirus pandemic descended. But now, doctors are sounding an alarm about an unexpected and perhaps overlooked crisis: a surge in Covid-19 patients with kidney failure that is leading to shortages of machines, supplies and staff required for emergency dialysis. In recent weeks, doctors on the front lines in intensive care units in New York and other hard-hit cities have learned that the coronavirus isn’t only a respiratory disease that has led to a crushing demand for ventilators. (Abelson, Fink, Kulish and Thomas, 4/18)

NPR: Dialysis Equipment In Short Supply For New York COVID-19 Patients
The kidney problems are being seen in patients who don't have advanced diabetes or chronic renal conditions. No one anticipated the trend, based on research from the COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia or Europe. "It's created a pretty substantial burden on supplies," said Dr. Steven Fishbane, head of nephrology at Northwell Health, New York's largest hospital network. "Everybody is running into shortages at this point." (Mogul, 4/19)

NBC News: Grainger, Silent Partner In Coronavirus Contract, Sold Protective Gear To U.S. For Double The Cost
It pays to be the middleman — especially in a time of crisis. For W.W. Grainger Inc., a big industrial supply company, that meant quickly doubling the price of coveralls in a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is worth as much as $35.8 million. The short of it: Grainger, acting as the silent partner in a deal between the federal government and two other companies, bought coveralls at $4 apiece from DuPont and then sold them to Uncle Sam for $7.96 apiece. (Allen, McCausland and Farivar, 4/18)

ProPublica: A Nurse’s Hospital Wouldn’t Let Her Wear An N95 Mask. She Hasn’t Been Back To Work In Weeks.
On March 31, Florida emergency room nurse Naomi Moya took a big risk. Though her hospital didn’t allow staff to wear N95 masks when treating patients who were not diagnosed with the coronavirus, Moya brought one from home and put it on to protect herself. A supervisor noticed the N95 right away and ordered her to remove it. (Allen, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: Reuse Of N95 Masks Grows, Though Experts Raise Safety Concerns
Beaumont Health in Michigan is one of many health systems across the country that have been forced to look at ways to reuse its supply of N95 respirator masks. It became clear in mid-March that the system’s inventory wouldn’t be enough to handle the surge of patients it was treating with COVID-19 symptoms. As of April 13, the eight-hospital system has treated more than 1,600 patients with the virus. (Castellucci, 4/18)

WBUR: N95 Mask Shortage Brings Inventor Out Of Retirement In Search Of Safe Reuse Method
Hospitals across the U.S. are facing a shortage of N95 masks amid the coronavirus pandemic, putting health care workers at increased risk of infection. The health crisis has brought Peter Tsai, the material scientist and engineer who developed the mask's virus-blocking technology, out of retirement to study safe ways to disinfect the single-use masks for reuse — nearly 30 years after his invention. (Bowman, 4/17)

And in other health care worker news —

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Students In Europe And U.S. Graduate Early To Join Coronavirus Front-Lines
Young students just finishing medical schools across the U.S. and Europe are being rushed into hospitals overwhelmed by the new coronavirus to combat a global health catastrophe. Many are forgoing final elective classes, logging onto Zoom or Webex to recite the Hippocratic oath and donning protective gear to begin their careers, often in areas far from the specialties they plan to pursue. (Harley-Mckeown and Korn, 4/18)

The Washington Post: Medical Volunteers In N.Y. During Coronavirus; Jim Mullen's Story
Sometime that first night, after stacking another dead body into a refrigerated truck, Jim Mullen decided he wouldn’t tell his wife everything. Gina is a worrier, and deep down he knew she didn’t agree with this. He had his own reasons for departing Dallas for New York on a volunteer nursing assignment April 3. But he hadn’t just left his wife alone to care for their 2-year-old daughter. (Babb, 4/18)

KQED: 'Haven't Hugged My Mom In A Month:' Kids Of Health Care Workers Feel The Strain 
Some hospital workers are staying away from their families to protect their kids. Others are living in the same house and taking extra precautions to avoid passing along the virus. Many children of nurses and doctors are navigating the unpredictability of life without regular school, along with the stress of worrying about their parents. Here's a look inside the lives of four families' kids. (Khokha and Ehsanipour, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Details How Hospitals Can Reopen As COVID-19 Surge Passes
The CMS on Sunday released guidelines for hospitals to restart elective surgeries while maintaining their ability to treat COVID-19 patients. As state governments begin to look past the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, several have released phased plans for reopening businesses and workplaces and lifting stay-at-home orders. Hospitals will have to undergo similar, phased processes, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said. (Teichert, 4/19)

Modern Healthcare: AHA, ACS And Others Release Guidelines For Resuming Elective Surgeries
With providers eager to resume elective surgical procedures as COVID-19 cases begin to decline in some regions, a group of prominent trade associations released joint guidelines Friday that are intended to help them assess their readiness to do so. The guidelines from the American Hospital Association, American College of Surgeons, American Society of Anesthesiologists and Association of periOperative Registered Nurses say cases should only resume when the region has seen a reduced rate of new COVID-19 cases for at least 14 days, and that such a move is first cleared by local and state governments. (Bannow, 4/17)

And in other hospital news —

Modern Healthcare: Home Monitoring Helps Hospitals Prepare For COVID-19 Patient Surges
As cases of the novel coronavirus continue to mount, hospitals are shifting their attention to monitoring and treating patients in their own homes—making virtual care an increasingly widespread and critical part of delivering healthcare. That includes the video visits people often think of when referring to telemedicine, but also programs that help clinicians regularly monitor patients’ vital signs and symptoms from afar. Across the board, demand for virtual care has gone up 20 to 30 times since mid-March, said Gurpreet Singh, health services leader at consulting firm PwC. (Cohen, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: CVS To Scale Infusion Therapy Business Nationwide
CVS Health's infusion care business will help hospitals transition stable patients to home-based nursing care to ease the burden on providers across the country that have taken on the most COVID-19 cases, the company announced Friday. Coram is initially partnering with UCLA Health to identify eligible patients who rely on IV therapy for hydration and nutrition, anti-infectives and specialty medications for chronic conditions, among other uses. It plans to scale the approach nationwide, working alongside home health agencies that will help treat and manage the sickest patients. (Kacik, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Reports Suggest Many Have Had Coronavirus With No Symptoms
A flood of new research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fueling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared. While that’s clearly good news, it also means it’s impossible to know who around you may be contagious. That complicates decisions about returning to work, school and normal life. In the last week, reports of silent infections have come from a homeless shelter in Boston, a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, pregnant women at a New York hospital, several European countries and California. (Marchione, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Does Covid-19 Infection Equal Immunity?
As the ranks of Covid-19 survivors swell, scientists are racing to understand how well they resist reinfection—and just how long that hard-won immunity might last. So far, most medical researchers who have studied coronaviruses related to the pathogen that causes Covid-19—including SARS, MERS and the common cold—are confident that people who do recover gain some immunity to SARS-CoV-2, based on preliminary studies and case reports of the new virus. They don’t know yet whether that protection will last a few months, a few years or a lifetime. (Hotz, 4/19)

Stat: Everything We Know About Coronavirus Immunity, And Plenty We Still Don't
People who think they’ve been exposed to the novel coronavirus are clamoring for antibody tests — blood screens that can detect who has previously been infected and, the hope is, signal who is protected from another case of Covid-19. But as the tests roll out, some experts are trying to inject a bit of restraint into the excitement that the results of these tests could, for example, clear people to get back to work. Some antibody tests have not been validated, they warn. Even those that have been can still provide false results. (Joseph, 4/20)

ABC News: What Plasma Donations Could Mean For The Hardest-Hit COVID-19 Patients
The son of a retired New York state investigator hopes the experimental treatment of convalescent plasma will help his father, who has been in the hospital for more than two weeks battling the coronavirus. Danny Fernandez's son, Zachary Fernandez, and ex-wife, Yesenia Fernandez, put out a plea on Friday asking for coronavirus survivors to donate blood for an antibody test for the coronavirus. (Carrega, 4/18)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus In America: The Year Ahead
The coronavirus is spreading from America’s biggest cities to its suburbs, and has begun encroaching on the nation’s rural regions. The virus is believed to have infected millions of citizens and has killed more than 34,000. Yet President Trump this week proposed guidelines for reopening the economy and suggested that a swath of the United States would soon resume something resembling normalcy. For weeks now, the administration’s view of the crisis and our future has been rosier than that of its own medical advisers, and of scientists generally. (McNeil, 4/18)

Stat: As The Coronavirus Swept Over China, Some Experts Were In Denial
The response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and other countries has been hobbled by a host of factors, many involving political and regulatory officials. Resistance to social distancing measures, testing debacles, and longtime failures to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic all played a role. But a subtler, less-recognized factor contributed to the wasting of precious weeks in January and February, when preparations to try to stop the virus should have kicked immediately into high gear. (Branswell, 4/20)

NBC News: During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Doctors Forced To Learn Lessons On The Fly
Nearly two months after the first case of the coronavirus was reported in the United States, medical professionals across the country are reflecting on what they wish they had known when the outbreak began: how quickly it would sweep through their communities, how devastating the emotional toll would be, how unprepared they and their health care systems were to treat a disease they had never seen before. (Silva, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Doctors May Be Wrongly Treating Heart Attacks In COVID-19 Patients, Study Finds
Doctors could inadvertently be treating COVID-19 patients who suffer heart attacks in ways that may not help save their lives, according to new research.A letter published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine involved a case study of 18 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 during the first month of the epidemic in New York City. Researchers found patients had elevated electrocardiogram readings usually associated with having a heart attack yet 10 showed no signs of arterial blockage. (Johnson, 4/17)

KQED: Using Lessons From The AIDS Pandemic To Inform Palliative Care For COVID-19 Patients 
Pantilat became a pioneer in palliative medicine, shepherding patients through serious illness and the dying process. He founded, and now directs the palliative care program at UCSF, where he’s setting the protocols that are guiding how the first generation of COVID-19 patients dies. (Dembosky, 4/18)

NBC News: What A Renowned Infectious Diseases Doctor Learned When He Got COVID-19
Dr. Michael Saag is one of the nation's best authorities on the coronavirus — not only because he's researched viruses for more than three decades, but also because he recently recovered from the illness himself... He was diagnosed with COVID-19 just over one month ago, on March 16. He described the illness as a "horror" that included fever, muscle aches, fatigue and difficulty thinking. (Edwards, 4/19)

The New York Times: Are Face Masks The New Condoms?
Are face masks going to become like condoms — ubiquitous, sometimes fashionable, promoted with public service announcements? They should be, one virus researcher says, if early indications are correct in suggesting that Covid-19 is often spread by people who feel healthy and show no symptoms. David O’Connor, who studies viral disease at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “If a substantial amount of transmission occurs before people feel sick, how do you stop that? By the time people feel sick and seek care, all the testing and isolation in the world would be too little, too late.” (Gorman, 4/18)

The Associated Press: Losing Face: The Rise Of The Mask, And What's Lost Behind It
On Saturday afternoons, the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh becomes a jam-packed hub of old-fashioned shopping. People stride along Penn Avenue, hopping from greengrocer to butcher to fishmonger to Italian market, smiling and gesturing and jabbering as they go. Not this weekend. As strange, spaced-out lines formed outside favorite establishments, the chatting was muted, the sidewalk sidesteps were awkward and tentative, and the facial expressions were, well, not really facial expressions at all. Just like much of the planet during these jumbled coronavirus days. (Anthony, 4/20)

The New York Times: At Least New Yorkers Can Still Roll Their Eyes
In a city already locked up and hidden away behind lowered gates and darkened doors, its people now walk behind their own personal barriers. A population known for big mouths now must speak up so as to be heard by a neighbor, a cashier, the deli counterman, gesturing to the brink of pantomime to be understood. From surgeon-quality personal protection to the home-stitched square and the bandit’s bandanna, New Yorkers pulled on a newly essential accessory and ventured into a landscape that changed yet again on Friday, as of 8 p.m., with the mandated wearing of masks in public. (Wilson, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus: Will Americans Wear Masks? Politics, History, Race And Crime Factor Into Tough Decision
Kevin Krannawitter won’t wear a mask because he just doesn’t think it’s necessary, whatever the scientists say. Marilyn Singleton won’t wear one either — and she’s a physician — because she says it’s un-American for the government to force people to cover their faces. You won’t see Ricardo Thornton in a mask because it reminds him of a time when he wasn’t free to make his own decisions about his life. (Fisher, Williams and Rozsa, 4/18)

The Washington Post: People Who Need Care Are Not Going To Hospitals Because Of Coronavirus, Doctors Say
Soon after he repurposed his 60-bed cardiac unit to accommodate covid-19 patients, Mount Sinai cardiovascular surgeon John Puskas was stumped: With nearly all the beds now occupied by victims of the novel coronavirus, where had all the heart patients gone? Even those left almost speechless by crushing chest pain weren’t coming through the ER. Variations on that question have puzzled clinicians not only in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, but across the country and in Spain, the United Kingdom and China. (Bernstein and Sellers, 4/19)

The Hill: Poll: Dental Visits, Annual Exams Top List Of Medical Care Americans Are Missing Amid Coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll on American healthcare, the peripheral medical impacts are beginning to come to light. Voters are reporting an uptick in missing care such as dentist appointments, annual exams, and counseling sessions, amid the coronavirus crisis, a new Hill-HarrisX survey finds. (4/17)

West Virginia Gazette-Mail: 'Chronic Health Problems Have Not Gone Away:' How Rural Health Centers Are Navigating A New World Of Patient Care
Health care for Kanawha County’s rural residents looks nothing like before the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all care is virtual. Patients who want rashes examined, for example, send pictures through a secure email. Newborns are immunized in their homes. The last 30 days have been a whirlwind, said Dr. Jessica McColley, lead clinician at Riverside Health Center in Belle. (Severino, 4/18)

Modern Healthcare: Diabetics At Four Times Greater Risk Of Death From COVID-19
Diabetic and hyperglycemic patients who contract COVID-19 are more than four times as likely to have complications that result in either death or longer hospital stays than their peers without those co-morbidities, according to a new study. An analysis of more than 1,100 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in 88 facilities from March 1 to April 6 found 39% had either diabetes or uncontrolled hyperglycemia. (Johnson, 4/17)

WBUR: Who's Hit Hardest By COVID-19? Why Obesity, Stress And Race All Matter 
As data emerges on the spectrum of symptoms caused by COVID-19, it's clear that people with chronic health conditions are being hit harder.While many people experience mild illness, 89% of people with COVID-19 who were sick enough to be hospitalized had at least one chronic condition. About half had high blood pressure and obesity, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about a third had diabetes and a third had cardiovascular disease. So, what explains this? (Aubrey, 4/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Strains Safety Net For People With Disabilities
Damian Gregory worries about the things that have quickly become normal to worry about in the coronavirus era: Is there Clorox at the grocery store this week? When will social distancing end? Will he and his family stay healthy until a vaccine is found? But the 46-year-old consultant and advocate, who has cerebral palsy, says he carries an extra layer of fear. He has to worry if he will be able to navigate in his wheelchair at the store or arrange for services to transport him. (Koh, 4/19)

Boston Globe: In Rare But Growing Number Of Cases, Children Hospitalized With Coronavirus In Massachusetts 
Last week, when the state first released data on coronavirus cases by hospital, the numbers seemed almost predictable. Many large hospitals had well above 100 patients; smaller community ones had dozens. But one number was striking: Boston Children’s Hospital had seven patients admitted with confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus, including three in the intensive care unit. The number of COVID-19-positive admissions has since climbed to 13, with three in the ICU as of Sunday. (Ostriker, 4/19)

CIDRAP: US Flu Activity Now Low, CDC Says
Laboratory-confirmed influenza activity in the United States is now low, and influenza-like illness (ILI) activity is lower but still elevated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest FluView report. The percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for flu dropped from 0.9% to 0.4% the week ending Apr 11, the CDC said, while visits to healthcare providers for ILI decreased from 3.9% to 2.9%, which is still above the national baseline of 2.4%. Five of 10 US regions remain at or above their baselines. The number of jurisdictions experiencing high or very high ILI activity decreased from 21 to 12, and the number of jurisdictions reporting regional or widespread influenza activity fell from 31 to 17. (4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Hypertension Is More Deadly Than It Has To Be
Here’s a new reason to have your blood pressure checked: Data from the coronavirus outbreak suggests that high blood pressure can make patients more susceptible to Covid-19, more likely to develop severe symptoms no matter what their age, and more likely to die if they are older. Researchers are also studying whether some blood-pressure medications might help or hurt with regard to the coronavirus. (Landro, 4/19)

The New York Times: Is The Virus On My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper?
When we asked readers to send their questions about coronavirus, a common theme emerged: Many people are fearful about tracking the virus into their homes on their clothes, their shoes, the mail and even the newspaper. We reached out to infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists and microbiologists to answer reader questions about the risks of coming into contact with the virus during essential trips outside and from deliveries. While we still need to take precautions, their answers were reassuring. (Parker-Pope, 4/17)

CNN: Experts Say It May Be Time For Grocery Stores To Ban Customers From Coming Inside Because Of Covid-19
Dozens of grocery store workers have died from the coronavirus, despite masks, temperature checks and capacity restrictions to keep them safe. So far, supermarkets have resisted the most draconian policy: banning customers from coming inside. However, some worker experts, union leaders and small grocery owners believe it has become too dangerous to let customers browse aisles, coming into close range with workers. (Meyersohn, 4/19)

Stateline: Speeders Take Over Empty Roads — With Fatal Consequences 
Daily vehicle traffic dropped by two-thirds nationally from March 1 through April 10, according to StreetLight Data, a San Francisco-based traffic analytics company. And while many states, such as California and Ohio, have seen a reduction in overall crashes during the pandemic compared with last year, some are reporting a jump in traffic fatalities that they say is linked to speeding or reckless driving. (Bergal, 4/20)

NBC News: 'It's Like New Year's Every Day' As Lockdowns Drive Increase In Booze And Pot Sales
Locked in and locked down, American consumers are turning more to their favorite "vices." With the initial surge of panic buying over, wine and marijuana sales are still way up, presenting an opportunity — and a challenge — for the businesses scrambling to meet the demand spikes and shifts in consumer behavior. (Popken, 4/19)

The Associated Press: Amid Virus Gloom, Glimpses Of Human Decency And Good Works
The idea formed on a day when all the news headlines were dire. The coronavirus was surging worldwide; Nashville had lost lives in a devastating tornado and children had their lives upended as they separated from beloved classmates to shelter at home. But only bad news is never the whole story. Days later, The Associated Press started its daily series “One Good Thing” to reflect the unheralded sacrifices made to benefit others that normally wouldn’t make a story, but maybe always deserved one. (Stapleton, 4/20)

CNN: How To Have A Safe Home Birth During A Pandemic
For pregnant women considering a home birth, the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidelines with everything that should be in place to ensure the safety and well-being of both mother and baby. The AAP generally doesn't recommend planned home births, citing an increased risk for complications and infant mortality. However, the organization says, it is up to the parent to decide -- and for those who know they'd prefer a home birth, the AAP says it's best for women who have no preexisting or maternal disease and who can plan to have two medical providers present with the necessary skills and equipment. (Rogers, 4/20)

NBC News: The Coronavirus Will Change How We Travel. That Will Probably Be Good For Us.
As millions of travel and tourism workers now find themselves out of jobs, furloughed or, as in the case of some cruise ship employees, stuck indefinitely at sea, the industries involved seem to be gearing up for some future "recovery", insinuating a return to the baseline of pre-coronavirus. That simply cannot happen because the pre-coronavirus travel and tourist industries will not function in a post-coronavirus world. (Evans, 4/19)

The Hill: Economy Faces Grueling Road To Recovery From Coronavirus
President Trump is pushing to loosen coronavirus restrictions to help revive a devastated economy, a move he hopes will lead to a quick recovery before Election Day. The Trump administration this week rolled out guidelines for states to follow starting May 1, as some governors gradually allow businesses to reopen and scaled-down social gatherings to take place. The president also convened nearly a dozen advisory panels tasked with figuring out how to reboot every sector of the economy. (Lane, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Landlords, Commercial Tenants Negotiate Rent Breaks Amid Coronavirus Disruption
Many U.S. landlords whose commercial tenants are asking for rent relief due to the coronavirus pandemic are acquiescing, though some are asking for proof of financial strain before delaying or even forgiving payments. Real-estate advisers, property managers and lawyers say they are fielding inquiries from tenants, landlords and lenders about ways to strike rent- and mortgage-relief deals given the closures of nonessential stores and the resulting economic downturn. (Al-Muslim, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: How Ruth’s Chris Got An Extra Helping Of Small Business Aid Money
Ruth’s Chris Steak House has long been known for its beefy portions, including a 22-ounce rib-eye. But lately, the upscale chain is getting more attention for the size of the loan it got through the government’s small business aid program. Even though loans are generally capped at $10 million, Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc. was able to qualify for $20 million under a provision that allowed it to seek loans for each of two subsidiaries. (Davis and Haddon, 4/19)

Stateline: Coronavirus And The States: Nearly A Quarter Of Workers Lack Jobs In Some States; Midwestern Governors Band Together 
The jobless rate has reached nearly a quarter of the workforce in several states, even with choked application systems delaying unemployment claims in many areas, a Stateline analysis has found. Michigan, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Kentucky and Nevada all have rates near 25%. The coronavirus crisis hit tourism-dependent economies in Hawaii and Nevada early; blue-collar workforces in Michigan and Pennsylvania have fewer options to work at home. (Henderson, 4/17)

KQED: Over 40% Of California's Workers Face Unemployment Risk, New Study Finds 
More than 40% of California's workforce — many of whom were already in precarious financial positions — are at high risk of unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic. That's according to a new report from the Economic Roundtable, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that profiled the state's workforce using federal census and economic data. (Wiley, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Outbreak Eases In New York As U.S. Protesters Push Against Restrictions
The coronavirus pandemic in America’s hardest-hit state is starting to wane, its governor said, as more U.S. protesters rallied to lift social-distancing restrictions. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at news conference Saturday the number of people currently hospitalized in the state for Covid-19 was below 17,000 compared with about 18,000 at its peak. With more than 235,000 reported coronavirus cases, New York accounts for about one-third of all infections in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Grant, Yap and Pop, 4/18)

The Hill: Cuomo: If Trend Holds, We Are Past The High Point On Coronavirus Hospitalizations 
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Sunday said the state's infection rate has slowed and that if current hospitalization trends persist, the Empire State’s coronavirus outbreak has peaked and begun to descend. “We’ve been watching this 24 hours a day… the total hospitalization rate is down again in the state of New York, we’re down to 16,000,” Cuomo said during his daily briefing. “It turned out the high point wasn’t a point, but the high point was a plateau, and we got up to the high point and then we just stayed at that level for a while.” (Budryk, 4/19)

The New York Times: 11 Numbers That Show How The Coronavirus Has Changed N.Y.C.
New York City has never looked so unlike itself. Deserted streets and vacant stores. Essential workers taking to lonely subways. Mandatory face coverings. But beyond the changes we can see outright are other lifestyle shifts that reflect the struggles and needs that have emerged within the last month. Unemployment, of course, is up, and the number is staggering. With the state’s shutdown extended until at least May 15, it is a desperate time for many. (Knoll, Paybarah, Meschke and Chen, 4/20)

The New York Times: ‘Turn Around, Go Back’: Summer Islands Don’t Want Coronavirus, Or You
Visitors to the western end of Fire Island are greeted by a large sign telling them to “Stop, turn around, go back.” In bold, red letters, the sign proclaims that the island’s residential areas are “closed to visitors” and that it has “No restrooms, no open business, no medical facility.” In fact, visiting Fire Island is not banned — a resident put up the unofficial sign — but it is strongly discouraged by local officials who fear that outsiders might bring the coronavirus to this 32 mile-long barrier island east of New York City, accessible mainly by ferry from mainland Long Island. (Kilgannon, 4/19)

NBC News: 13 Hours, 22 Bodies: The Long, Lonesome Shift Of A Crematory Worker In The Heat Of COVID-19
[Gus] Padilla scarfed down his breakfast and changed into his work clothes. A long-sleeve navy shirt, teal pants, white face mask, black plastic gloves. Then he got to work, placing body after body after body into a large furnace, known as a retort, inside the crematorium at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. “It’s nonstop,” Padilla said, his skin moist from sweat. (Shapiro, 4/19)

The New York Times: He Went To 3 Hospitals. When He Finally Got A Bed, It Was Too Late.
After feeling unwell with what seemed like symptoms of the coronavirus, Luis Arellano first tried going to a nearby hospital in Brooklyn, where he was told to come back if his condition worsened. Days later, as his health deteriorated, his family took him to a New Jersey hospital. He waited eight hours, and after being told they’d have to wait another seven to nine hours, the family left, they said. (Salcedo, 4/19)

CBS News: New York City Overwhelmed By Coronavirus Fatalities As Plasma Treatment Brings Hope 
Americans are suffering in the greatest numbers of the pandemic. Known infections here are more than the next four countries combined. According to data from Johns Hopkins, only about 5% of infected Americans have died, but this weekend that left more than 37,000 dead — nearly one in four of world fatalities. (Pelley, 4/19)

NBC News: Coronavirus Batters The Navajo Nation, And It's About To Get Worse
On March 17, when the Navajo Nation saw its first COVID-19 case, the reservation's limited health facilities sprang into action. "We basically changed our hospital from an acute care hospital and an ambulatory care clinic to one that could take care of respiratory care patients," said Dr. Diana Hu, a pediatrician at one of the reservation hospitals. "And that transition happened over a period of about seven days." (Abou-Sabe, McFadden, Romo and Longoria, 4/20)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Devastates Detroit Police, From The Chief On Down
At the “Police and Pancakes” breakfast sponsored by the Ninth Precinct on Detroit’s east side, some 90 uniformed officers, activists and students mingled inside a community center. They squeezed into line to reach a long table where four aluminum chafing dishes brimmed with scrambled eggs, Danishes, fruit and, of course, pancakes. Marlowe Stoudamire, a neighborhood organizer, posted a cheerful Facebook video the day after the March 6 event, saying, “The whole conversation was about how to create a better community experience with the Detroit Police Department.” (Eligon and MacFarquhar, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Massachusetts Ranks Third Among States With Most Coronavirus Cases
Massachusetts has climbed to rank third among states with the most cases of the coronavirus as it ramps up testing and faces a surge of people sickened in the world-wide pandemic. As of Saturday, Massachusetts reported 34,402 positive cases, behind New York and New Jersey but ahead of far-more-populous states including California, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The state was fourth in the U.S. among states in tests per capita as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins data. (Levitz, 4/18)

Boston Globe: Amid Flurry Of National Coronavirus Data, Massachusetts Remains A Hot Spot Of Infection 
This virus first struck in late February on the Pacific Coast, attacking a nursing home in Washington state where the death toll quickly soared from one to 14 — to 43.It was terrifying, but far away — not here, not us. The one publicized case of COVID-19 in Massachusetts had seemed to fizzle. But today, after seven long weeks, fortunes have dramatically shifted. (Ryan, Lazar and Arsenault, 4/18)

Boston Globe: Walsh Outlines How Construction Might Safely Resume Amid Coronavirus
Boston was the first big city in the country to shut down construction amid the coronavirus crisis. Now Mayor Martin J. Walsh is outlining how work might start up again, safely. The city on Friday issued a series of new safety guidelines for construction projects, including requiring a coronavirus safety plan as part of any building permit, with details for everything from hand-washing stations to elevator usage. Safety plans will be due starting April 27. (Logan, 4/17)

Boston Globe: Patients Start To Fill Field Hospitals Amid Surge In Coronavirus Cases
Boston’s newest medical facility — a pop-up field hospital at the city’s cavernous convention center — has already treated more than 100 coronavirus patients in the past week and could reach capacity in the coming days as the state’s COVID-19 cases peak. The already high demand for beds in the temporary facility known as Boston Hope is a sign of the magnitude of the pandemic, even as doctors and state officials say social distancing measures are helping to slow spread of the virus. (McCluskey, 4/18)

Boston Globe: As Cyber Attacks Grow, Doctors And Hospitals Struggle To Update Security Measures
Cyber criminals are increasingly launching malicious software attacks against health care organizations, including those in Boston, disrupting medical treatment and threatening the vast amounts of private patient information housed at doctors’ offices and hospitals. And even as health care providers are a growing target for hackers, the health care industry as a whole is lagging in security measures to prevent and respond to attacks, according to cybersecurity experts. (McCluskey, 4/19)

Boston Globe: As Rhode Island Tops 4,000 Coronavirus Cases, Raimondo Talks About Preparing For Surge 
As the spread of coronavirus increases in Rhode Island, state health officials have made recommendations to all acute-care hospitals to help decide how they will ration medical equipment and treatment if they are overwhelmed by patients with COVID-19. The crisis standards of care will make sure Rhode Island is ready “if we get to a place where we have to make difficult decisions for health supplies and hospital beds," Governor Gina M. Raimondo said during a news conference Friday at the State House. (Milkovits, 4/17)

Boston Globe: Latino Leaders Alarmed By Report That 45 Percent Of Rhode Islanders With Coronavirus Are Latino 
Latino leaders say they were shocked to hear the state health director say that 45 percent of those who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Rhode Island are Latino. But they are questioning whether that figure overstates or understates the proportion of Latinos with the coronavirus. While it’s clear Latinos make up 16 percent of the state population, they say it’s unclear what percentage of all of those who have been tested are Latino -- a key to putting the 45 percent figure in context. (Fitzpatrick, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Michigan Investigating Dead Bodies Piled Up At DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital
State regulators are investigating photos that surfaced this week of dead bodies piled together at DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday. CNN aired a photo the cable news network said it obtained from a Sinai-Grace emergency room worker of multiple bodies in body bags piled in a storage room. (Livengood, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Inside D.C.'s Emergency Child-Care Centers
Nacole Thrower was running late, and her 3-year-old son was still snuggled in his sheets, his limbs sticking to the mattress. “Hudson, time to get up. Hudson,” Thrower said. She lifted her half-sleeping toddler and carried him to the bathroom. He sat on a stepping stool, his eyes still mostly closed, and brushed his teeth. It was just before 7 a.m., on a rainy weekday in April. (Stein, 4/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Puts Gavin Newsom In Tough Spot On California Progressives’ Biggest Priorities
A soaring economy gave Gov. Gavin Newsom wide latitude during his first year in office to set California on a path to the sweeping liberal agenda he outlined during his campaign. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic plays havoc with the state budget, Newsom suddenly faces tough and unexpected choices that may require him to temporarily abandon key policy goals and disappoint allies. (Koseff, 4/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: SFO Workers Still On The Job Face Coronavirus Risks
Many workers are still on the job at San Francisco International Airport, facing potential exposure to the coronavirus to keep the facility running at a fraction of its normal capacity. Workers screening bags, preparing meals for flight crews and cleaning airplanes said they are concerned about their employer’s failure to properly protect them from infection. (DiFeliciantonio, 4/19)

KQED: Senators Want To Know If ICE Detainees Were Pepper Sprayed After Requesting Masks 
Both U.S. senators from California are calling for an investigation into reports that detained women at a federal immigration facility in San Diego were pepper sprayed and handcuffed by guards after demanding protective masks. Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris sent a letter Wednesday asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security inspector general to look into “alarming reports of conduct by staff” during a recent incident at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. (Hendricks, 4/17)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: More Georgians Rushing To Write Wills During Coronavirus Pandemic
With COVID-19 cases in Georgia skyrocketing, Daniel decided to act immediately when he saw a Facebook post from a Marietta attorney, Dawn Levine, offering free wills and advance directives for first responders and medical workers in Cobb County. Before the pandemic, only 32% of adults surveyed said they had a will, according to a 2020 study done by Caring.com. However, in the past few weeks, there’s been a surge in the number of people seeking out lawyers who specialize in end-of-life affairs, such as wills and advance directives, local attorneys said. (Oliviero, 4/17)

WBUR: With Senior Year In Disarray, Teens And Young Adults Feel Lost. Here's How To Help 
For many young people sheltering at home means missing milestones and public recognition of their achievements. This is especially true for seniors graduating from high school and college. Kendall Smith, a high school senior who lives in Tallahassee, Fla., says her school has many traditions leading up to graduation. But this year things are very different. (Neighmond, 4/19)

WBUR: After Texas Abortion Ban, Clinics In Other Southwest States See Influx Of Patients 
Planned Parenthood clinics in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada are reporting an influx of patients from Texas, after an order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suspending most abortions in that state during the coronavirus pandemic. New data provided to NPR by Planned Parenthood show a more than sevenfold increase in patients traveling from Texas to clinics across the Southwest for abortions since the order took effect in late March. (McCammon, 4/17)

ProPublica: Chicago Lakeshore Hospital Closes After Years Of Abuse Allegations But Cites 'The COVID-19 Pandemic'
A Chicago psychiatric hospital that has faced repeated allegations of abuse and neglect of patients has closed, although a spokesman for the hospital said Friday the move is temporary. Once one of the largest behavioral health providers in Illinois, Chicago Lakeshore Hospital in Uptown discharged its last patient this week and notified employees of the closure, the spokesman said. “Chicago Lakeshore Hospital has temporarily discontinued providing services,” said Guy Chipparoni, a spokesman for Signature Healthcare Services, which owns Chicago Lakeshore Hospital. “Skeletal staff” remain at the hospital, he said. (Eldeib, 4/17)

Oklahoman: Coronavirus In Oklahoma: Chinese Community Helping In The Fight Against COVID-19
Before the virus ever made its way to the United States, many Chinese Americans had a sneak preview of the danger as they watched it threaten family and friends in their home country. Now many of those same people are working to help protect their new home. (Kemp, 4/19)

Oklahoman: Mental Health Care Providers Plan For Increased Need Even After Oklahoma's COVID-19 Peak
Mental health care services are in high demand in Oklahoma, and providers expect the increased need to continue well into the months after the initial flurry of COVID-19 activity. Police departments across the metro have said calls related to suicide have increased, and in Oklahoma City, domestic violence has also trended up compared to this time last year. (Branch, 4/20)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada’s 1st Coronavirus Patient Recovering
The retired Marine private was the first of many Nevadans to go through the ordeal. As of Thursday, the state had reported more than 3,300 cases of COVID-19 and 142 deaths. Pipkins’ battle with the disease was hard won, and he still has a ways to go to fully recover. But doctors say his condition has drastically improved: He has now tested negative for the virus twice and has been moved out of the intensive care unit. He’ll soon be discharged and moved to a rehabilitation facility. (Erickson, 4/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Coronavirus Killing Black, Asian Clark County Residents At High Rates 
The coronavirus is killing Clark County’s black and Asian residents at a disproportionately high rate compared to their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to new health data released Friday. The death rate among Asian, non-Hispanic people was about 9-per-100,000 people. Among black, non-Hispanic people, the death rate was about 8-per-100,000. (Davidson, 4/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada May Be Near Peak Of Coronavirus, But 2nd Wave Feared 
Although Nevada and Clark County might be near a peak in COVID-19 cases — or possibly even have passed it — local health authorities say that doesn’t mean the worst is over. After sharp increases, new cases have shown signs of slowing in recent days, while some prominent forecasting models suggest that the state may have passed the outbreak’s peak. (Hynes, 4/18)

Billings Gazette: Shelby, Home Of The Most Montana COVID-19 Deaths, Won’t Go Down Without A Fight 
Per capita, no Montana community has been hit harder by the virus. As of Saturday, Toole County (pop. 4,800) had 29 confirmed cases, four of the state’s 10 deaths and 14 recovered — all but the most recent infection directly linked to Shelby's 38-apartment Marias Heritage Center assisted-living facility and by extension the 21-bed Marias Medical Center. Beyond the tragedies is economic upheaval most conspicuous in Shelby's surreally sedate Main Street. Shelter-in-place and social distancing have shuttered cafes, taverns and retail businesses typically abuzz with social connectivity. (Welsch, 4/19)

Detroit Free Press: Detroit Area Hospitals Resuming Surgeries, Procedures After Red Ink
For the first time in a month, Henry Ford Health System resumed outpatient surgeries in specially designated operating rooms at its five hospitals, Senior Vice President Dr. Steven Kalkanis announced Thursday. Other health systems, including Detroit Medical Center and Michigan Medicine, said they are also easing into more surgeries. The announcements follow a dispiriting series of layoffs and furloughs of doctors, nurses, administrative staff and other hospital personnel across metro Detroit in the last week, which hospital administrators had blamed largely on their inability to generate revenue from medical procedures unrelated to the coronavirus crisis. (Dixon and Shamus, 4/17)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Area's First In-Hospital Hospice Unit For Dying Coronavirus Patients Opens
The area’s first hospice unit for dying, hospitalized coronavirus patients opened at Metairie’s East Jefferson General Hospital this week, a move that allows loved ones of people fatally stricken with the disease to be at their bedsides — in protective gear — during their final moments. (Vargas, 4/18)

The New York Times: ‘Something Is Going To Explode’: When Coronavirus Strikes A Prison
The Federal Correctional Complex in Oakdale, La., is the site of the first fatal coronavirus outbreak in the federal prison system. F.C.C. Oakdale — which houses some 2,000 inmates and employs close to 500 staff members in two low-security prisons (Federal Correctional Institution Oakdale I and F.C.I. Oakdale II) as well as a minimum-security camp — provides the economic lifeblood for a town of fewer than 8,000 people and the surrounding parish. Many of F.C.C. Oakdale’s inmates are serving sentences for nonviolent offenses, like drug sales and financial fraud. (Reitman, 4/18)

The Associated Press: California Reports Inmate Deaths Caused By Coronavirus
California corrections officials announced the first prison inmate deaths from complications related to the novel coronavirus. An inmate died Sunday at a hospital after contracting COVID-19 at the California Institution for Men in San Bernardino County, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement. (4/19)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Jails And Prison Remain Crowded As COVID-19 Spreads
Prisoners across the state, who have relayed their experiences during the pandemic through phone or email interviews or via their loved ones, talk of unsanitary conditions and say they’ve been given little more to ward off the virus than bars of soap.In response, prison officials point to prepared statements about efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The updated information is shared on a dashboard tallying confirmed cases of COVID-19. As of Friday, the Georgia Department of Corrections had confirmed 139 confirmed cases in 30 of the state’s 34 detention facilities. (Boone, 4/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Federal Judge Refuses To Release Large Number Of California Prisoners
A federal judge refused Friday to order California prison officials to release large numbers of inmates or impose social-distancing requirements as protections against the coronavirus, saying the state has acted “reasonably” so far by freeing several thousand prisoners ahead of schedule and taking steps to expand housing and improve sanitation. (Egelko, 4/17)

The Associated Press: For Meat Plant Workers, Virus Makes A Hard Job Perilous
Kulule Amosa’s husband earns $17.70 an hour at a South Dakota pork plant doing a job so physically demanding it can only be performed in 30-minute increments. After each shift last week, he left exhausted as usual — but he didn’t want to go home. He was scared he would infect his pregnant wife with the coronavirus — so much so that when he pulled into the parking lot of their apartment building, he would call Amosa to tell her he wasn’t coming inside. When he eventually did, he would sleep separately from her in their two-bedroom apartment. (Groves, 4/19)

The Hill: USDA Under Pressure As Food Safety Concerns Grow 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (UDSA) is facing growing pressure to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply during the coronavirus outbreak. Experts who spoke to The Hill stressed that the food supply was safe now. But they also pointed to growing challenges for the USDA as food industry workers fall sick and inspectors scramble for limited resources, questioning whether officials responsible for food supply safety are ready for the task at hand. (Gangitano, 4/19)

The New York Times: In Pandemic, A Remote Russian Region Orders A Lockdown — On Information
Nearly as big as California but served by only a handful of mostly decrepit Soviet-era hospitals, the remote northern Russian region of Komi is a coronavirus petri dish for the horrors lying in wait for the world’s largest country. Amid growing evidence that the pathogen had already breached Komi’s feeble defenses, the local authorities moved vigorously last week to contain the crisis: The police summoned critics of the regional government to ask how they knew about an outbreak in a hospital at a time when officials in Komi were insisting nobody had been infected. (Higgins, 4/19)

The Associated Press: North Korean Defectors, Experts Question Zero Virus Claim
As a doctor in North Korea during the SARS outbreak and flu pandemic, Choi Jung Hun didn’t have much more than a thermometer to decide who should be quarantined. Barely paid, with no test kits and working with antiquated equipment, if anything, he and his fellow doctors in the northeastern city of Chongjin were often unable to determine who had the disease, even after patients died, said Choi, who fled to South Korea in 2012. (Kim, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Nations Credited With Fast Response To Coronavirus Moving To Gradually Reopen Businesses
Several countries moved ahead or laid out plans for the gradual reopening of their economies this week, signaling cautious optimism by their governments that measures to combat the virus are working. Germany and South Korea — which have both been credited as role models in handling the outbreak in their respective regions — are slowly reversing some of the restrictions put in place weeks ago, embarking on a cautious and long path back to normality that could serve as a template for other nations. (Noack, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Lockdowns Prompt Protests In India, Lebanon, Iraq
As more than half the people in the world hunker down under some form of enforced confinement, stirrings of political and social unrest are pointing to a new, potentially turbulent phase in the global effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Already, protests spurred by the collapse of economic activity have erupted in scattered locations around the world. Tens of thousands of migrant laborers stranded without work or a way home staged demonstrations last week in the Indian city of Mumbai, crowding together in defiance of social distancing rules. (Sly, 4/19)

Modern Healthcare: Some Hospitals Aim To Improve Community Health By Hiring Ex-Offenders
Leaders of Sinai Health System in Chicago realized that to boost population health in the poor inner-city communities Sinai serves, they needed to step up hiring of local residents, a significant percentage of whom have criminal records. “One of the best ways to improve people’s health is to hire them,” said John Figiel, Sinai’s director of talent management. “When you have a job and health insurance, you and your family can access healthcare.”So about a year ago, Sinai partnered with the Safer Foundation, which works with ex-offenders, to establish an employment referral pipeline with a wraparound support system to better prepare returning citizens for workplace success. It’s called the Sinai Pathway Program. (Meyer, 4/18)

Stat: Study Stresses Family History-Based Screening For Colorectal Cancer
Colorectal cancer, which develops in the large intestine, begins with small, noncancerous clump of cells, known as polyps, that form on the inside of the colon and turn cancerous over time. Regular screening tests can help prevent the disease by identifying these polyps so they can be removed. But not everyone is screened early enough — and a new study underlines the importance of taking family histories of the disease into account. (Zia, 4/20)

The Washington Post: Cystic Fibrosis: The Medical Crusade To Cure The Cruel Lung Disease 
In August 1989, scientists made a blockbuster discovery: They pinpointed the faulty gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a cruel lung disease that killed many of its victims before they reached adulthood. The human genome was uncharted territory, and the gene hunt had become an all-out international race, with laboratories in three countries searching for the root of the disease. (Johnson, 4/19)

CIDRAP: Analysis Highlights Troubles In The Antibiotic Pipeline
A new analysis of the antibiotic pipeline indicates there aren't enough antibiotics in development to meet current and anticipated patient needs. The analysis, published this week by the Pew Charitable Trusts' antibiotic resistance project, found that 41 new antibiotics with potential to treat serious infections are currently in various phases of clinical development, and four have been approved since June 2019. (Dall, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: How Climate Change Is Putting Doctors In The Hot Seat
A 4-year-old girl was rushed to the emergency room three times in one week for asthma attacks.An elderly man, who’d been holed up in a top-floor apartment with no air conditioning during a heat wave, showed up at a hospital with a temperature of 106 degrees. A 27-year-old man arrived in the ER with trouble breathing ― and learned he had end-stage kidney disease, linked to his time as a sugar cane farmer in the sweltering fields of El Salvador. (Bailey, 4/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Sending Hospitals Into Bankruptcy
Public-health officials have directed Americans to stay home to slow the coronavirus spread and ease the burden on health-care providers. Most areas of the country are succeeding—so much so that hospitals and physicians are hemorrhaging cash due to declining demand for care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month recommended that health-care providers postpone “elective” procedures to free up capacity and conserve protective equipment for treating coronavirus patients. Governors have likewise ordered providers and citizens to reschedule “non-essential” appointments. For better or worse, these directions are being stringently observed. (4/19)

The Washington Post: How Not To Say The Wrong Thing To Health-Care Workers 
One of my friends grew so concerned about my safety during the novel coronavirus outbreak that she began sending articles. First, about why health-care providers get sicker than others. Then about how the virus might penetrate my mask. Then a map of the United States, with my city enveloped in a giant red circle. These are things I have read before. I spend most days calming my nerves in the face of them, so I can be a guiding force for my patients. I know my friend sends these articles because she’s worried and wants me to stay safe. But with each one, a freezing chill seeps in through my pores and I am shaking again. (Dorothy R. Novick, 4/17)

NBC News: Timothy Caulfield: Dr. Oz's Hydroxychloroquine Advocacy Seduces Trump As Coronavirus Wellness Woo Surges
Over the past decade, celebrity wellness brands have helped to frame how we talk and think about health. But now that we are in the grip of a deadly pandemic, their shameless marketing of healing crystals, supplements and cleanses (aka unhealthy crash diets) comes across as especially ludicrous and exploitative. Now more than ever, the public wants and needs good science from trusted sources. (Timothy Caulfield, 4/19)

The New York Times: Government Jobs Could Help Fight The Unemployment Surge
Years of bashing by anti-government ideologues have gutted the capacity of vital agencies like the I.R.S., the Small Business Administration and state unemployment offices. In the economic calamity brought on by the pandemic, in the past month alone, over 22 million jobless Americans have filed for relief. The government agencies are woefully ill-equipped to process the millions of claims authorized under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. As Congress considers a second package, another surge of applications will soon increase demand. (Robert Kuttner, 4/20)

The Washington Post: How Data Can Aid The Fight Against Covid-19
As the world fights covid-19 and countries develop plans to reopen their societies, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of how the disease is spreading. Better data can help governments determine where to send resources such as ventilators and personal protective equipment — and eventually which areas are safe to start opening up again. Getting accurate county-by-county data from across the United States is challenging, and obtaining such focused data from across the whole world is even harder. But with a community of billions of people globally, Facebook can uniquely help researchers and health authorities get the information they need to respond to the outbreak and start planning for the recovery. (Mark Zuckerberg, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Offers Opportunity For More Equality In Healthcare
The impact on women is equally distressing, as we see domestic violence rates soar, disproportionate pressure on women to juggle childcare and work, and a greater toll on women-majority workforces like nursing. However, the pandemic may also have a positive effect among our nation’s historically stratified healthcare workforce. In medicine, where divisions along lines of gender, specialty and race are routinely pronounced, this crisis seems to be closing some of those gaps. Health system leaders should take note of this development—and nurture it. (Sheila Dugan, 4/18)

Stat: Pharma Management During A Crisis: Lessons Learned For Covid-19 
When I started working in the biopharma industry 20 or so years ago, I didn’t think I would need to become an expert in crisis management. Yet during the past decade, I have found myself leading the corporate response to three very different existential crises in three different regions. (Mahesh Karande, 4/20)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Black Mothers Expected To Fare Worse In Pandemic
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black mothers are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women. Currently, we are seeing similar trends with the effects of COVID-19 on the Black community. Compared to majority White counties, Black counties have infection rates nearly three times higher and death rates that are about six times higher. Data also shows that Black people are overrepresented and, in some cases, make up most of COVID-19 deaths within certain states. For example, in Louisiana, where Black people make up 32% of the population, about 60% of people that have died from COVID-19 across the state are Black. (Natalie Hernandez and Amber Mack, 4/17)

The Hill: Providing Safe Child Care During COVID-19 — A Life And Death Issue 
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) recently introduced a $50 billion child care bailout to “stabilize the child care system, keep providers in business, and ensure parents are able to go back to work when it is safe to do so.” The bailout would provide funding to allow programs to close while continuing to pay staff wages. These are critical resources, as the alternatives have encouraged programs to remain open and staff to keep working, or else risk losing their livelihoods. (Lea Austin and Marcy Whitebook, 4/19)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Keep Workers Healthy On The Job 
The threat from Covid-19 won’t end when the epidemic subsides. The recent upsurge in cases in Singapore and Japan shows how easily the virus can re-emerge. It will be a constant threat until an effective vaccine is on the market. So how does America function? What happens at work sites could be the difference between relative safety and constant disruption from new outbreaks. The virus will have fresh opportunities to spread as workers return to the job. But businesses can take steps to minimize risk and make the country safer. Employers need to start crafting plans for safe, healthy and productive work environments in an age of Covid risk. (Scott Gottlieb and Stephen Ostroff, 4/19)

The Detroit News: How To Do Business, And Stay Safe
John Kennedy operates three manufacturing plants, including one in West Michigan, that have remained opened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to produce essential medical devices. Of 500 employees, only one, in Plymouth, Mass., has come down with the virus, and has recovered. It's not by chance. The Detroit NewsKennedy's Autocam Medical has instituted rigorous precautions to protect worker safety, including social distancing within the plants, mandatory face masks and a zero entrance policy for workers who show any symptoms of illness. (Nolan Finley, 4/18)

The New York Times: We Need A New Social Contract For The Coronavirus
Everyone wants to get the country back to work, school, and together again as soon as possible. On Friday, the Trump administration announced it wants to do that in phases and allow each governor to make the decision when and how to reopen. Even then, the virus will continue to lurk in people who are unaware they are carrying and spreading it to others who will become ill with Covid-19. We need to face this fact: Returning to our old reality will be a slow and frustrating process that will take many months and require deep wells of patience. We will not be fully free until we have a vaccine. So how will we navigate this perilous terrain? (David A. Kessler, 4/20)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 And The Elderly
The coronavirus is at its deadliest when it infects senior citizens, particularly those with conditions that require home health services or land them in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. Precise statistics on seniors’ vulnerability are hard to come by. But Washington state, which has up-to-date demographic data through its statewide reporting system, has documented the extent to which mortality from the pandemic is concentrated among the elderly. (Merrill Goozner, 4/18)

Boston Globe: How To Reduce Coronavirus Deaths In Nursing Homes 
Residents of nursing facilities in Massachusetts are in grave danger. As of April 15, 48 percent of reported COVID-19 deaths in the state were in long-term care facilities. From April 10 to April 15 alone, 283 deaths were attributed to COVID-19 in long-term care facilities. Over the same period, the number of reported cases by residents and health care workers in these facilities increased by more than 95 percent, and the number of facilities reporting at least one case of COVID-19 increased by more than 25 percent. (Simon Johnson, Kate Kellogg, and Retsef Levi, 4/17)

Dallas Morning News: The Numbers Are In: COVID-19 Is Worse Than The Flu And Is Now A Leading Cause Of Death
We can now officially put to rest all comparisons of COVID-19 to influenza. The numbers are in. Coronavirus is killing more Americans than the flu and almost everything else. According to data compiled by The Washington Post, COVID-19 is now the second leading cause of death in America.In some parts of the country, it’s way ahead. In Louisiana and Washington, D.C., more people died of COVID-19 during the first week of April than any other cause. In New York, it’s not even close: 5,226 died in that state from the virus that week compared to 870 who died of heart disease. The upward march of these numbers is steady and disturbing. (4/19)

The Washington Post: In-Person Church Services Right Now Are An Affront To Public Health — And Morality
The Constitution's First Amendment confers religious liberty; it is not a license to kill or even to put the faithful at exceptional risk of harm. The large majority of U.S. faith leaders concur and have acted accordingly, by canceling in-person worship during the pandemic. The handful who have defied state and local edicts prohibiting large gatherings imperil not only their followers but also everyone in their communities. That is an unacceptable affront to public health — and to morality. (4/19)

Los Angeles Times: It's Time To Put A Coronavirus Quarantine On NIMBYism 
It’s bad enough to be homeless and have no place to shelter when you are healthy. In south Orange County, if you’re homeless and have tested positive for COVID-19, your choices of places to go are a sidewalk or a hospital. Yet there are hotels sitting empty in the county that are willing to provide rooms to homeless people, if only the public would let them.Instead, two communities in south Orange County have marshaled their energy and legal resources to thwart efforts by the state, the county, hotel owners and an experienced service provider to help protect sick homeless individuals from getting sicker as well as to keep them from spreading the virus to the community at large. (Carla Hall, 4/17)