‘Being From A Small Town, You Think It’s Not Going To Touch Us’: Rural America Unprepared For Fast-Spreading Virus

The New York Times: Coronavirus Was Slow To Spread To Rural America. Not Anymore.
Grace Rhodes was getting worried last month as she watched the coronavirus tear through New York and Chicago. But her 8,000-person hometown in Southern Illinois still had no reported cases, and her boss at her pharmacy job assured her: “It’ll never get here.” Now it has. A new wave of coronavirus cases is spreading deep into rural corners of the country where people once hoped their communities might be shielded because of their isolation from hard-hit urban centers and the natural social distancing of life in the countryside. (Healy, Tavernise, Gebeloff and Cai, 4/8)

ABC News: Disaster In Motion: Where Flights From Coronavirus-Ravaged Countries Landed In US 
An ABC News joint investigation with its owned television stations sheds new light on the likely flow of the coronavirus from global hotspots into the U.S. and provides a glimpse the toll the virus has taken on some of the first Americans to interact with international travelers: airport workers. From December through March, as severe outbreaks cropped up in China and then Italy and Spain, among others, thousands of flights from the hard-hit nations poured into U.S. cities, according to an ABC News analysis of more than 20 million flight records obtained from the tracking service Flightradar-24. (Kelly and Thomas, 4/7)

NPR: Coronavirus Peaks By State: How Social Distancing Measures Are Helping
As COVID-19 surges in places throughout the country, Americans are left to wonder, "When will my state hit its worst point?" A widely cited model offers some predictions. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's COVID-19 projections were cited in recent White House briefings and take into account how the pandemic is playing out in several countries around the world. (McMinn, 4/7)

The Associated Press: DC Fights To Enforce Distancing And Braces For Looming Surge
Pick-up basketball games. Crowds gathering at an outdoor fish market. Family hikes along trails in Rock Creek Park. The warmer weather is bringing violations of social distance guidelines in the nation’s capital, even as health officials predict the city could become one of the next U.S. hot spots in the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,200 people have tested positive, with 22 deaths, in Washington. But national and local health officials predict that the worst is yet to come. (Khalil, 4/8)

The Washington Post: D.C. Council Freezes Rent Hikes But Omits Undocumented Immigrants From Covid-19 Relief Bill
The D.C. Council on Tuesday passed sweeping coronavirus relief legislation that freezes rent increases and makes it easier for inmates to win early release. City leaders also promised to offer assistance to undocumented residents, who do not qualify for unemployment insurance or stimulus checks, after dropping provisions meant to help them. (Nirappil and Lang, 4/7)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Forms Coronavirus 'Strike Teams' To Combat Nursing Home Outbreaks
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has launched statewide “strike teams” to respond to the crisis of coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and other group living facilities, and he announced a crackdown on businesses that violate social distancing restrictions. Extended-care facilities for the elderly are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, with high concentrations of at-risk patients and the potential for clusters of fatalities. (Schneider, Cox and Wiggins, 4/7)

The Hill: Coronavirus Watch: Where The Virus Is Spiking Across The Country 
New York and New Jersey both reported the largest number of deaths from the novel coronavirus in one day in their states on Tuesday, even as some data suggested they were at least approaching the apex of their crises. New York, which has seen far more cases than any other state so far, reported a total of 731 deaths on Tuesday, the highest one-day surge the state has seen. Yet the statistics suggest it may be on a downward curve. (Moreno, 4/7)

ProPublica/The Arizona Republic: A School On Navajo Nation Stayed Open. Then People Started Showing Symptoms.
As some schools on the nation’s largest Native American reservation were ordered to close on account of the coronavirus, students at Rocky Ridge Boarding School in northeast Arizona continued attending class. School wasn’t supposed to be in session on March 16. Gov. Doug Ducey had declared that public schools would be closed as the state attempted to control the spread of the coronavirus. (Woods, 4/7)

Kaiser Health News: ‘When It Starts Getting Into Your Local Hospital, It Becomes Real’
The folding chairs outside the windows appeared late last month, after the maintenance staff at St. James Parish Hospital labeled each window with a patient room number so families and friends could at least see their loved ones battling COVID-19. Yet even this small solace the Louisiana rural hospital can offer is tainted for clinical nurse educator Leslie Fisher. She has to remind the family members to take shifts to properly social distance from one another — even when their loved ones could be in their final moments. (Weber, 4/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Appeals Court Allows Texas To Ban Most Abortions During Coronavirus Pandemic
A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed Texas to suspend most abortions in the state during the coronavirus public-health crisis, a move that could quickly send the issue to the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a 2-to-1 ruling, lifted a trial judge’s restraining order that prevented the state from curbing abortions on the grounds that it would save medical resources. In times of great emergency, states can reasonably restrict constitutional rights to protect public safety, the court’s majority said. (Kendall and Findell, 4/7)

Boston Globe: Inside A Makeshift Hospital That Will House Hundreds Of R.I. Coronavirus Patients
The first thing you notice about the old Lowe’s on Davisville Road in Quonset is how clean it is for a building that has been used only intermittently since the home improvement store closed in 2011. If this were a different moment, the vacant facility would be perfect for a recreation center. With 22-foot ceilings and 146,000 square feet of wide open space, a dozen indoor basketball courts could easily be built and there would still be room left over on the perfectly smooth gray concrete floor for a roller skating rink. (McGowan, 4/8)

Houston Chronicle: Over 12,000 Texas Children's Employees To Get Pandemic Stipend 
Employees at Texas Children's Hospital are getting stipends up to $500 during the COVID-19 outbreak, hospital president Mark A. Wallace announced Tuesday.Full-time employees will receive a $500 check this Friday, while part-time employees will receive $250. Over 12,000 workers at the hospital will receive the stipends, said Jenn Jacome, a Texas Children's Hospital spokeswoman. (Wu, 4/7)

Houston Chronicle: 'I Had To Stop Everything.' New Restrictions Due To Coronavirus Leave Prospective Parents On Hold 
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) issued new guidelines on March 17 in response to the coronavirus crisis. The requirements ceased any new fertility treatments - including ovulation induction, intrauterine inseminations, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing. (Peyton, 4/7)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kemp Set To Extend Emergency Powers To Combat Coronavirus
About three weeks ago, wary lawmakers ventured into the Georgia Capitol for an uneasy special session to grant Gov. Brian Kemp emergency powers. The process was expected to last an hour. It ended up lasting nearly a full workday. Now, as the governor nears a decision to extend those powers unilaterally, that March 16 rendezvous at the Gold Dome takes on greater importance. And a compromise after negotiations stalled that day spares legislators of an uncomfortable return to the Capitol. (Bluestein, 4/8)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia COVID-19 Deaths Surge, And A Rural County Coroner Reels
The deaths at Pelham Parkway reflect the rapidly mounting toll of the coronavirus pandemic across Georgia. The virus has hit the elderly and people with chronic illnesses especially hard, and it is leaving a disproportionately deadly wake in sparsely populated, rural areas such as Mitchell County, 200 miles south of Atlanta. (Judd, 4/7)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: CDC Says It Did Not Advise Louisiana To Stop Naming Nursing Homes With Coronavirus Cases
When Louisiana health officials announced they would no longer name individual nursing homes with coronavirus cases, they said they came to that decision in consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But a CDC spokesman said Tuesday that the agency had not advised the state one way or the other, saying that the decision to name individual nursing homes is up to the state Department of Health. (Roberts III and Karlin, 4/7)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Moving Homeless Residents To Hotel In New Orleans East Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
About half of the 190 homeless people temporarily housed at the Hilton Garden Inn on Gravier Street are being moved to a hotel in New Orleans East, where they can continue to isolate themselves during the coronavirus pandemic. The move by state and city officials is aimed at lowering the density of homeless people at the Hilton. (Baurick, 4/7)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: 'I'm Flooded With Work': Many Lawyers, Accountants In High Demand Due To Coronavirus Rescue Package
The coronavirus has cost tens of thousands of workers in Louisiana their jobs.But the pandemic has generated more work for many lawyers and accountants from clients navigating the massive disruptions wrought by stay-at-home orders and seeking guidance on loans, grants and other aid contained in the $2 trillion federal pandemic rescue package. (Bridges, 4/7)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Cortez Masto, Horsford Urge Feds To Remember Clinics 
Nevada officials are concerned that money in the $2.2 trillion relief bill being distributed under the discretion of the Trump administration could leave out Las Vegas employer- and union-sponsored clinics where 150,000 Las Vegas workers and families get their health care. To make matters worse, the officials cite the state’s health care workforce shortage — which ranks 47th for all states for physicians per 100,000 residents — as the need to funnel funds and assistance to Nevada clinics. (Martin, 4/7)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Coronavirus In Nevada Prisons Would Endanger Inmates, Staff
Gregory Kerkorian, an heir to the “father of the Las Vegas megaresort,” turned 74 inside a Nevada prison on Monday. He’s serving a one- to four-year sentence at Southern Desert Correctional Center on animal cruelty charges. His lawyers say that keeping him behind bars during the coronavirus pandemic amounts to cruel and unusual punishment for a man who suffers from high blood pressure and psoriasis and is susceptible to infections. (Ferrara, 4/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Wisconsin: Death Toll Nears 100
As the number of deaths in Wisconsin from coronavirus neared 100 on Tuesday, with more than half coming in Milwaukee, officials moved to reduce crowds on public buses and open treatment areas at State Fair Park and on the grounds of a St. Francis seminary.  The statewide death toll from COVID-19 was 95 by late Tuesday, according to records and county websites monitored by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Seventeen of the state's 72 counties have reported at least one death. Milwaukee County has reported 51 deaths. (Diedrich, 4/7)

Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19 Rapid Testing's Coming To Cincinnati. What You Should Know.
Some urgent care facilities in the Cincinnati region have begun to offer COVID-19 rapid testing. But what is rapid testing and what could it mean for you? Until recently, the only approved tests for the novel coronavirus analyzed nasal swabs to search for RNA of the virus. (Knight, 4/7)