Iowa Governor Attempts To Reassure Skeptical Residents About Test Result Delays; San Francisco Extends Testing To All Workers Leaving Home

Des Moines Register: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Pledges To Clear Up Test Iowa COVID-19 Test Backlog
Iowa’s backlog of coronavirus test results should be cleared up by the end of the day, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday. ...Reynolds had initially pledged that those Iowans would have their coronavirus results by the end of the weekend. She said thousands of tests had been processed during that time, but the backlog wasn't completely clear by Monday morning, she said. (Pfannenstiel, Coltrain and Rodriguez, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Makes Coronavirus Testing Available To Those Who Leave Home To Work, Regardless Of Symptoms 
San Francisco is now making making free COVID-19 tests available to any worker who must leave their home and interact with the public — diminishing or eliminating their ability to practice social distancing — while on the job, regardless of whether they present symptoms of a coronavirus infection. The new testing policy, announced by Mayor London Breed and Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax on Monday, represents the city’s latest expansion of testing efforts. (Fracassa, 5/4)

KQED: Free Testing For All Essential Workers In SF; Breed Threatens To Close Dolores Park, Reinstate Street-Sweeping Tickets 
San Francisco is in a mad dash to expand testing, as it begins to ease restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The city's revised stay at home order—announced on April 29—took effect Monday and will be in place through the last day of May. (Stark, 5/4)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Testing Has Been A Problem For Months. Will This New Survey Help?
Worried you contracted the novel coronavirus? If you're an Ohioan with mild symptoms and no preexisting conditions, odds are you still won't have access to a test anytime soon. As Ohio ramps up testing – hoping to hit 22,000 tests per day by late May, the state will prioritize those who are hospitalized, health care workers, those older than 65 years old, first responders, nursing home residents and those receiving medical procedures. (Balmert, 5/4)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Tightens Time Frame For Handling Body After Death Amid Pandemic
Hospitals and funeral directors now will have 24 hours to contact designated parties to handle burial and cremation arrangements after a death amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. In an emergency order issued Monday, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon made multiple moves to deal with capacity concerns with the state handling more than 4,000 deaths thus far in the outbreak. (Moran, 5/4)

NBC News: Los Angeles Clinic Puts Underprivileged Community At Greater Risk Of Contracting Coronavirus, Health Care Workers Say
The largest health care provider in South Los Angeles, which serves low-income African Americans and Latinos, is putting some of the city's most vulnerable residents at risk of contracting the coronavirus by having patients come in for routine appointments, according to some medical professionals who work there. As the coronavirus batters minority communities, some medical professionals said they are concerned that the facility, St. John's Well Child and Family Center, is disregarding a key federal guideline intended to protect people from the contagion, which recommends that medical facilities reschedule nonessential appointments. (Flaherty, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Many Have Recovered From Coronavirus In Bay Area? Why We May Never Know 
Amid last week’s coronavirus statistics came one piece of seemingly good news: Globally, the number of people who have recovered has risen to more than 1 million. So what does the data on COVID-19 recoveries look like for the Bay Area? Many readers have asked The Chronicle this question, seeking a hopeful counterpoint to the case counts, hospitalizations and deaths updating every day in The Chronicle’s Coronavirus Tracker. But many of California’s largest counties, including most in the Bay Area, are not providing data on how many people have recovered from the virus. (Hwang, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Nearly 100 Coronavirus Cases At Bay Area Nursing Home Outbreak In Vallejo 
At least 99 people, including 76 residents and 23 staff members, have tested positive for coronavirus at Windsor Vallejo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled senior care facility in Vallejo. Jayleen Richards, the Solano County public health administrator who confirmed the number of infections at the facility, as of Monday morning, did not have an update on the conditions of the infected patients. (Vaziri, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Despite Coronavirus Challenges, UCSF On Track To Raise $5 Billion 
Despite new challenges facing fundraising campaigns in the Bay Area due to the coronavirus pandemic, UCSF said it is still moving forward with an ambitious plan it launched in 2017 aimed at raising $5 billion to address rising health care costs and tackle complex health and science initiatives. “We are on track with our overall fundraising and will be sharing our campaign results this fall,” the institution’s leaders said in a statement to The Chronicle on Friday. (Vaziri, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Stanford Health Resumes Non-Emergency Care After Widespread Staff Testing Finds Few Coronavirus Cases 
Stanford Health Care is resuming elective surgeries and other non-emergency procedures this week — and is encouraging patients to seek out that care — after finding that less than 1% of its health care staff tested positive for the coronavirus and very few had markers of previous infection. More than 11,000 workers, out of about 14,000 total, have undergone testing for active infection and antibodies, Stanford Health officials said. Only a few dozen, or about 0.33%, tested positive and none had symptoms of illness. Fewer than 3% tested positive for antibodies, which indicate they had been infected at some point. (Allday, 5/4)

ABC News: Navajo Community Left To Fight COVID-19 With Limited Resources 
COVID-19 is surging through the Navajo community, which is suffering one of the highest infection rates per capita in the country. And the peak is still weeks away. (Gutman, Zepeda, Shakya and Yang, 5/4)

Houston Chronicle: With ‘Worst Budget In History’ Looming, City Weighs How It Can Spend Federal Pandemic Aid Funds
As the prospect of mass furloughs and severe spending cuts looms over the city’s next budget, Houston officials are sitting on a pile of coronavirus stimulus money that amounts to more than double the shortfall projected by Mayor Sylvester Turner. The rub, at least for now, is that the strings attached to the $404 million Houston received from the so-called Coronavirus Relief Fund — a $150 billion trove sent to states and local governments as part of the roughly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — bar officials from spending the aid on expenses they already had budgeted. (Scherer, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Coronavirus Outbreak At Medford Nursing Home Kills 54 Residents 
The coronavirus has killed 54 residents of a Medford nursing home over the past four weeks and infected another 100, in the latest deadly outbreak at an elderly care facility in the state. The rising death toll at the Courtyard Nursing Care Center, a 224-bed facility located behind Lawrence Memorial Hospital, escaped widespread public notice for weeks. (Murphy and Fox, 5/4)

Modern Healthcare: Nuvance Delays Financial Filings While It Investigates Overstatement
Prior to its early 2019 merger with Western Connecticut Health Network, Health Quest overstated the amount it was owed by patients by an estimated $75 million. The resulting health system, not-for-profit Nuvance Health, made the announcement in recent fillings with bondholders to explain the delay in releasing its fiscal 2019 financial results as required under its debt agreements. Nuvance said it had enlisted legal and accounting professionals to investigate the matter. (Bannow, 5/4)

The Washington Post: More People In District Dying Outside Of Hospitals During Pandemic
The number of people in the District dying outside hospitals spiked as the novel coronavirus started its sweep through the nation’s capital, raising concerns that people suffering a wide range of critical ailments are not seeking medical attention. Some of those people contracted the virus; the city has so far confirmed such deaths at home for three residents. But officials suspect many of the deaths are not related to the virus and may be the result of heart attacks, drug overdoses or other causes. (Hermann, 5/4)

Louisville Courier Journal: Beshear Ignoring Coronavirus Rules At Governor's Mansion, Group Says
A conservative think tank is calling out Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for continuing to have housekeepers and chefs working at the Governor's Mansion during the coronavirus pandemic. The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions on Monday released results from an open records request, which shows about a dozen employees being paid for working at the Frankfort residence where Beshear and his family live. (Bailey, 5/4)

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting: Coronavirus In Mississippi: Cases At Mental Health Facilities
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health confirmed Friday that 56 patients and an unknown number of staff at four of its 12 facilities have confirmed COVD-19 infections — a much higher number than reported previously, according to figures from the agency. East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian is the hardest hit, with 31 patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 36 cases among staff, according to reporting by the Meridian Star. The hospital has 372 psychiatric beds, 35 chemical dependency beds, 226 nursing home beds. (Whitehead, 5/5)

Burlington Free Press: Vermont Child Abuse Reports Drop During Coronavirus Pandemic
The number of calls to the state reporting suspected child abuse and neglect has dropped during the new coronavirus pandemic. The drop in calls in March and April has Vermont DCF officials concerned, but not surprised. (Murray, 5/4)