Reuters: U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Top 16,000: Reuters Tally
U.S. deaths due to coronavirus topped 16,400 on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, although there are signs the outbreak might be nearing a peak. U.S. officials warned Americans to expect alarming numbers of coronavirus deaths this week, even as there was evidence that the number of new infections was flattening in New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak. But Americans must resist the temptation to backslide on social distancing now that signs of progress have emerged in the battle against the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. medical and state officials said on Thursday. (Shumaker, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Deaths In U.S. Rise Past 16,000
“That is so shocking and painful and breathtaking, I don’t even have the words for it,” Cuomo said, describing the outbreak as “a silent explosion that just ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9/11.” “It’s gotten to the point, frankly, that we’re going to bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed,” he said. (Finnegan, 4/9)

The Hill: New York Reaches Highest Number Of Single-Day Coronavirus Deaths At 799
As the death toll continues to rise, the hospitalization rate has dropped, Cuomo said. He explained that health experts have warned from day one that would happen, since the longer people are on ventilators the more likely they are to not come off the machines alive. “I understand the scientific concept, I understand the data, but you're talking about 799 lives,” Cuomo said. (Klar, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs To World’s Second Highest 
U.S. confirmed cases rose to more than 466,000, according to Johns Hopkins, though the actual number is likely higher, experts say, due to lack of widespread testing, false negatives and differences in reporting standards. The number of U.S. deaths was 16,686. In comparison, Italy’s death toll was 18,279, the highest of any country, and Spain’s was 15,447, according to Johns Hopkins. As lockdowns across the U.S. continue, the economic picture is darkening. The U.S. Labor Department said Thursday that an additional 6.6 million people submitted applications for unemployment insurance in the week ended April 4, bringing the total number of unemployment applications to 17 million since the beginning of the pandemic. (Strumpf, 4/10)

The New York Times: How Many People Have Actually Died From Coronavirus In New York?
In the first five days of April, 1,125 people were pronounced dead in their homes or on the street in New York City, more than eight times the deaths recorded during the same period in 2019, according to the Fire Department. Many of these deaths were probably caused by Covid-19, but were not accounted for in the coronavirus tallies given by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo during his widely watched daily news conferences — statistics that are viewed as key measures of the impact of the outbreak. (Watkins and Rashbaum, 4/10)

The New York Times: Stark Death Toll, But Cautious Optimism In N.Y. Over Hospitalizations
The number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in New York State rose on Wednesday by only 200 from the previous day, officials said on Thursday, the smallest increase since before the imposition of a statewide lockdown and another promising sign that the government’s measures may have started working. But even as the flow of infected people into emergency rooms appeared to level out, more than 18,000 ailing patients — nearly equal to the capacity of Madison Square Garden — were still packed into New York’s hospitals, and the daily death toll was near 800 for the second day in a row, bringing the state’s total fatalities to more than 7,000. (Feuer, 4/9)

Reuters: New York City Hires Laborers To Bury Dead In Hart Island Potter's Field Amid Coronavirus Surge
New York City officials have hired contract laborers to bury the dead in its potter’s field on Hart Island as the city’s daily death rate from the coronavirus epidemic has reached grim new records in each of the last three days. The city has used Hart Island to bury New Yorkers with no known next of kin or whose family are unable to arrange a funeral since the 19th century. (Jackson and McDermid, 4/9)

CNN: US Coronavirus: America Nears Peak Death Rate
The New York governor signed an order to bring in additional funeral directors as the number of coronavirus cases in the state outpaced all countries except the United States. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive order will make it easier for licensed funeral directors from other states to practice in New York. At least 16,686 people have died of coronavirus in the United States -- nearly half of them in New York. Of the 466,299 total confirmed cases nationwide, about 162,000 are in New York, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. (Karimi, 4/10)

Reuters: 'You Can't Relax': Vigilance Urged As New York Sees Signs Of Coronavirus Progress
Americans must resist the impulse to ease social-separation measures at the first glimpse of progress now being seen in the coronavirus battle, state government and public health leaders warned on Thursday, as the U.S. death toll surpassed 16,500. (Caspani, 4/9)

Politico: NYC Could Ease Coronavirus Restrictions In Late May, But Hampered By Lack Of Testing
New York City could begin to ease some coronavirus restrictions in late May or June — but it will require widespread testing of residents for the virus, which the city does not yet have the ability to do. Even as the death toll continues to surge — reaching 5,150 on Thursday, according to state data, with more than 84,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 — the city has begun to plan for a gradual return to normalcy down the road, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. (Durkin, 4/9)

The Associated Press: A City Under Siege: 24 Hours In The Fight To Save New York
Brooklyn is dark except for the streetlamps when Carla Brown’s alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. -- much too early for an average Monday. But with the coronavirus laying siege to New York, today looms as anything but ordinary. Brown runs a meals-on-wheels program for elderly shut-ins and in her embattled city, that label suddenly fits nearly every senior citizen. For two weeks, she’s been working 12- to 14-hour days, taking over routes for sick or missing drivers. Today, she has to find room on the trucks for more than 100 new deliveries. (Geller, 4/8)

The Associated Press: 'Everybody Is Very Scared': Struggle To Keep Apart On Subway
They let trains that look too crowded pass by. If they decide to board, they search for emptier cars to ride in. Then they size up fellow passengers before picking the safest spot they can find to sit or stand for commutes sometimes lasting an hour or more. This quiet calculus is being performed daily by people who must keep working during the coronavirus pandemic and say the social distancing required is nearly impossible to practice in the enclosed spaces of New York City’s public transit system. (Hays and Ritzel, 4/10)

Stat: Here's How Projected Covid-19 Fatalities Compare To Other Causes Of Death
The numbers seem catastrophic, overwhelming, beyond a magnitude that the human mind or heart can grasp: What do 60,000 — or even 240,000 — deaths look like? Those are roughly the lower and upper limits of projected fatalities in the U.S. from Covid-19 in models that have been informing U.S. policy. (Begley and Empinado, 4/9)

The Hill: Coronavirus Now Leading Cause Of Death In US 
COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus that is spreading across the globe, is now the deadliest disease in the U.S., causing more deaths per day than cancer or heart disease. A new graph published Tuesday by Maria Danilychev, a physician, showed COVID-19 is the cause of 1,970 deaths in the U.S. per day, according to Newsweek. (Deese, 4/9)

The Associated Press: U.S. States Share, Get Creative In Hunt For Medical Supplies
With the federal stockpile drained of protective gear, states are turning to each other, private industries and anyone who can donate in a desperate bid to get respirators, gloves and other supplies to doctors, nurses and other front-line workers. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Wednesday that the federal cupboard is officially bare at least through this month after it was able to fulfill just a sliver of states’ requests. (Mulvihill, 4/10)

ABC News: Controversy In California After Governor Sends 500 Ventilators Back To National Stockpile 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s plan to send 500 ventilators to the national stockpile on Monday in order to assist New York and other states that have been hit hardest by the novel coronavirus -- a move that caused confusion in some counties where officials have been requesting ventilators themselves. In Riverside County, one of the worst-hit counties in California, public health officials are predicting the country will reach its ventilator capacity by April 26. (Chen, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Says California Has Enough Coronavirus Ventilators
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday offered assurances that the state will have enough ventilators to “meet the needs” of Californians stricken by the novel coronavirus based on the state’s projections of the outbreak. The governor said California hospitals reported that they are currently using only 31% of the ventilators they have, meaning 8,000 of the breathing machines are available for future COVID-19 patients who might need them. That number does not include the ventilators in the state stockpile, he said. (Willon, 4/9)

NPR: How 1 State Says It's Being Left Out Of Airlifted Supply Chain
In recent days, the Trump administration has organized dozens of flights to deliver surgical masks and other critical medical supplies around the country, working with a half dozen major medical distributors to get those supplies "to the right place at the right time." But if your state isn't considered the right place, that system can be frustrating. "When you look at those five or six national distributors, Montana is sure as heck not getting much luck out of them," Gov. Steve Bullock said in an interview. (Rose, 4/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Smaller Cities Cry Foul On Coronavirus Aid
Mayors of small cities facing big budget shortfalls say they were unfairly cut out of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law, and they are drawing support in Congress to make them eligible for direct aid in future rounds of coronavirus legislation. Localities are seeing increased strain on first responders and police departments, in addition to bearing the cost of purchasing personal protective equipment. Meanwhile, revenue streams from sales taxes and income taxes have slowed and unemployment claims are surging. (Andrews, 4/9)

WBUR: How To Ration Ventilators: There's A System, But It's Still Agonizing
Many hospitals across the country, and the world, have or will soon have more patients who need breathing support than they have ventilators. Physicians will have to decide who gets a ventilator, and who doesn’t. Doctors in Italy have already struggled through these harrowing choices. We’re better at rationing than we used to be — but it never will, and never should, be easy. (Bates, 4/10)

Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama has advice for local leaders —

The Hill: Obama Warns Group Of Mayors That The 'Biggest Mistake' Is To 'Misinform' During The Pandemic 
Former President Obama addressed a group of mayors and other local leaders Thursday, warning that, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the "biggest mistake" leaders can make is "to misinform.” "Speak the truth. Speak it clearly. Speak it with compassion. Speak it with empathy for what folks are going through. The biggest mistake any [of] us can make in these situations is to misinform, particularly when we’re requiring people to make sacrifices and take actions that might not be their natural inclination," Obama said during a virtual meeting organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies. (Pitofsky, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Chicago’s Rush University Medical System Was Designed For A Pandemic
As this city braces for April 20, the anticipated peak of coronavirus infections here, doctors and nurses at Rush University Medical Center say they are prepared, not just because of their training, but because of where they work: A 14-story, 830,000-square-foot facility built specifically for a deadly pandemic. The butterfly-shaped building, known as “the Tower,” opened in January 2012 as the first of its kind in the United States. (Guarino, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Open Grocery Stores For Providers Treating COVID-19 Patients
Coleman's became the first CommonSpirit Health hospital to add a makeshift grocery store to the facility on March 30. As frontline caregivers across the country struggle to treat a growing wave of coronavirus patients, hospitals are increasingly adding grocery stores with little or no cost markups so employees can grab the essentials on their way out. (Bannow, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare: Ohio Hospitals Are Prepping For Big Financial Losses In Pandemic
Although hospitals are preparing to care for a huge number of patients in the anticipated COVID-19 surge, that demand won't translate to more dollars for healthcare systems. As they begin treating these more costly, higher-acuity patients and postpone more profitable elective surgeries, health systems across the country are bracing for significant financial losses. (Coutré, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: To ‘Keep The Lights On,’ Doctors And Hospitals Ask For Advance Medicare Payments
Darrin Menard, a family physician in Lafayette, Louisiana, has spent the past month easing patients’ anxieties about the coronavirus that has killed 10 people in his parish so far. But Menard has his own fears: How will his medical practice survive the pandemic? His office typically sees 70 patients a day, but now it handles half that amount and many of those appointments are done over the phone or computer. (Galewitz, 4/10)

Modern Healthcare: Four Health Systems Providing Managers, Supplies To Detroit Field Hospital
Four metro Detroit healthcare systems are teaming up to provide staffing, support and supplies for the launch of a field hospital for COVID-19 patients inside Detroit's riverfront convention center. And Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration is giving the 1,000-bed quarantine space inside the former Cobo Center a name: the TCF Regional Care Center. (Livengood and Frank, 4/9)

WBUR: Boston Hospitals, Even Longtime Rivals, Work Together To Manage Flow Of COVID-19 Patients 
Boston hospitals, even traditional rivals, have launched a citywide group to manage capacity, so that no one hospital becomes overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients while others have beds available. It's a bit like the Red Sox and the Yankees and other teams joining together for a common cause — heart-warming, and also a sign of true crisis. (Goldberg and Bebinger, 4/9)

WBUR: Convention Centers Fill With Beds For COVID-19, Including 500 For Boston's Homeless 
For the last five days, workers from Teamsters Local 25 have filled the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center with rows of walls and curtains. Where it was empty a week ago, the floor will now bustle with medical rooms a thousand deep – a new field hospital to care for patients with COVID-19. Raised over the rooms is a blue and yellow flag with the hospital’s name: Boston Hope.While Teamsters Local 25 is used to building inside Boston's convention center, the union local president, Sean O’Brien, says this project felt different. It was personal. (Chen, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Pushing To Reopen Much Of The U.S. Next Month
The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month, raising concerns among health experts and economists of a possible covid-19 resurgence if Americans return to their normal lives before the virus is truly stamped out. Behind closed doors, President Trump — concerned with the sagging economy — has sought a strategy for resuming business activity by May 1, according to people familiar with the discussions. In phone calls with outside advisers, Trump has even floated trying to reopen much of the country before the end of this month, when the current federal recommendations to avoid social gatherings and work from home expire, the people said. (Zapotosky, Dawsey, Del Real and Wan, 4/9)

The Hill: Trump Officials Lay Groundwork For May Reopening 
The president has floated reopening businesses in parts of the country that do not have outbreaks. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday unveiled guidelines meant to encourage those in critical sectors who have been exposed to the coronavirus but aren’t showing symptoms to continue working. (Samuels and Chalfant, 4/9)

The Hill: Trump Downplays Need For Widespread Testing Before Reopening Economy 
President Trump on Thursday shrugged off the need to significantly expand nationwide coronavirus testing capabilities in order to be able to restart the U.S. economy and then keep it open. The president, who has expressed optimism that parts of the country could begin easing social distancing restrictions by early May, told reporters a White House briefing that ramping up testing to levels recommended by health experts to quickly identify new clusters would be a goal, but is not a necessity to send people back to work. (Samuels and Sullivan, 4/9)

NPR: What Will It Take To Reopen U.S., CDC Says 'Aggressive' Contact Tracing
It's the question on everyone's minds: What will it take for us to come out of this period of extreme social distancing and return to some semblance of normal life? It turns out that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working on a plan to allow the U.S. to safely begin to scale back those policies. CDC Director Robert Redfield spoke with NPR on Thursday, saying that the plan relies on not only ramped-up testing but "very aggressive" contact tracing of those who do test positive for the coronavirus, and a major scale-up of personnel to do the necessary work. (Simmons-Duffin and Stein, 4/10)

ABC News: As Some Leaders Weigh Pursuit Of ‘Herd Immunity’ From Coronavirus, Experts Warn Risks Are Too High 
When will the United States reach the point where the novel coronavirus cannot easily spread? As public health officials battle an ever-expanding crisis, epidemiologists suggest we still have a long way to go. The threshold for achieving herd immunity – the fraction of the population that needs to be immune to a disease to make person-to-person transmission extremely unlikely or even impossible – varies virus by virus. With measles, for example, that threshold is high: 93% to 95%. (Bruggeman, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Authorities Roll Out New Coronavirus Tests To Gauge Infection’s Spread
Health departments, hospitals and companies around the world are rolling out the next wave in Covid-19 testing, which looks in a person’s blood for signs of past infection. The new tests promise to give public-health and hospital officials a better idea of how widely the virus has spread and who can safely treat patients and stop social distancing. But uncertainty about the accuracy of some of the tests and unknowns surrounding immunity to Covid-19—the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus—could limit their usefulness, at least early on. (Abbott and Roland, 4/10)

Politico: Pelosi Warns Trump Not To Reopen Country Too Soon
Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled Thursday that the House is unlikely to return to session later this month, her clearest indication yet that Congress — like the rest of the country — could remain shuttered for weeks or even longer as the coronavirus crisis continues. In a half-hour interview, Pelosi issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump, urging him not to prematurely rush to reopen major segments of the country before the coronavirus is under control, which she said could further send the U.S. economy into a tailspin. (Caygle and Bresnahan, 4/9)

Stateline: With No U.S. Plan To Return To Normal, Some States Are Creating Their Own 
Reopening society, experts say, will require the regular testing of millions of people, a reliable and fast nationwide reporting network and an army of thousands of investigators tasked with tracking down those who may have been exposed to the virus. Experts have compared this to the effort to put a man on the moon and the Manhattan Project. The federal government has yet to produce even the framework of a plan — let alone the supplies and workforce to carry it out — leaving states and local governments to cobble together their own tenuous roadmaps. (Brown, 4/10)

ProPublica: Trump Removed The Head Of The Coronavirus Bailout Oversight Board. Its Members Could Be Next.
In the wake of President Trump’s move to push aside the official who was supposed to lead the coronavirus bailout watchdog group, four other members are just as vulnerable. Trump was able to remove the panel’s chosen head, Glenn Fine, by naming a new Defense Department inspector general and bumping Fine to the No. 2 job at the Pentagon watchdog office. No longer an acting inspector general, Fine was disqualified from serving on the panel he was supposed to lead. (Arnsdorf, 4/9)

ABC News: White House Braces For Congressional Probes Of Coronavirus Response
Late last month, when asked how the administration will hold the Treasury Department accountable for the $500 billion coronavirus relief fund the department is administering to large businesses, President Trump had a blunt, yet predictable answer. “Look, I’ll be the oversight. I’ll be the oversight,” he told reporters. Ten days later, Trump announced he would be nominating a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, Brian Miller, to serve as the special inspector general for pandemic recovery. (Faulders, Santucci and Kolinovsky, 4/10)

CNN: White House Reverses Position After Blocking Health Officials From Appearing On CNN 
Vice President Mike Pence's office reversed course on Thursday afternoon, after declining for days to allow the nation's top health officials to appear on CNN and discuss the coronavirus pandemic, in what was an attempt to pressure the network into carrying the White House's lengthy daily briefings in full. After this story was published, Pence's office allowed for the booking of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield for CNN's Thursday night coronavirus town hall. Dr. Anthony Fauci was also booked for Friday on "New Day." (Darcy, 4/10)

The New York Times: Trump Keeps Talking. Some Republicans Don’t Like What They’re Hearing.
In his daily briefings on the coronavirus, President Trump has brandished all the familiar tools in his rhetorical arsenal: belittling Democratic governors, demonizing the media, trading in innuendo and bulldozing over the guidance of experts. It’s the kind of performance the president relishes, but one that has his advisers and Republican allies worried. As unemployment soars and the death toll skyrockets, and new polls show support for the president’s handling of the crisis sagging, White House allies and Republican lawmakers increasingly believe the briefings are hurting the president more than helping him. (Martin and Haberman, 4/9)

Politico: Trump Team Ramps Up Scrutiny Of Funds To WHO
U.S. agencies and departments that channel money to the World Health Organization have been asked not to send more such funds this fiscal year without first obtaining higher-level approval, two people familiar with the issue said. The decision comes after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to the U.N. global health body over allegations that the WHO’s leaders are too friendly to China and made missteps in the early days of the coronavirus crisis. (Toosi and Diamond, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Forges Ahead With Broader Agenda As Coronavirus Upends The Country
In recent days, as the coronavirus pandemic has ravaged the country, President Trump’s administration has ousted two key inspectors general, moved to weaken federal gas mileage standards, nominated a young conservative for a powerful appeals court and sent scores of immigrants back across the southern border without a customary hearing. It’s a whirlwind of activity taking place away from the spotlight that highlights how the twin crises of a viral outbreak and an economic slowdown have not slowed Trump’s aggressive push to advance his broader agenda in the months before he faces voters. (Olorunnipa, 4/9)

Politico: Melania Trump Promotes Wearing Face Masks. Her Husband, Not So Much.
First lady Melania Trump used her platform to promote health officials' recommendation on wearing face masks — though her husband has said he won't wear one. The first lady on Thursday posted a picture of herself wearing a mask on Twitter, emphasizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation that Americans wear face masks in public to help slow the spread of coronavirus across the U.S. (Ward, 4/9)

The Associated Press: White House Says No 'Surprise' Bills For COVID-19 Patients
Hospitals taking money from the $2 trillion stimulus bill will have to agree not to send “surprise” medical bills to patients treated for COVID-19, the White House said Thursday. Surprise bills typically happen when a patient with health insurance gets treated at an out-of-network emergency room, or when an out-of-network doctor assists with a hospital procedure. They can run from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. Before the coronavirus outbreak, lawmakers in Congress had pledged to curtail the practice, but prospects for such legislation now seem highly uncertain. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/10)

Politico: 'Surprise' Billing Fix Could Hitch Ride On Next Coronavirus Relief Bill
The coronavirus crisis is spurring leaders of two congressional health committees to renew bipartisan efforts to end “surprise” medical bills over fears that thousands of Americans exposed to the disease could get hit by staggering balances for out-of-network or emergency care. The issue sharply divided hospitals, doctors and insurers before the outbreak and triggered expensive lobbying campaigns by moneyed health interests and private equity companies with stakes in firms that staff hospitals with physicians. (Luthi, 4/9)

The Hill: Insurance Companies Reduce Premiums Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 
Several major insurance companies are reducing premiums due to fewer claims amid social distancing measures put in place during the coronavirus pandemic. State Farm announced that a dividend of up to $2 billion will go to its auto insurance customers, who will receive a credit of about 25 percent of their premium for the time period of March 20 through May 31, though exact percentages will vary by state. The insurance giant noted it is receiving fewer claims as many Americans have begun working remotely and forgoing their commutes. (Moreno, 4/9)

The Hill: Insurers To Lawmakers: Health Insurance Policies 'Were Not Designed' For Pandemics 
A group of associations that represent members of the health insurance industry penned a letter to a pair of congressional lawmakers from California noting that health insurance companies are not built to withstand pandemics such as the current coronavirus outbreak. "Insurance coverage works by spreading risk, but that model simply cannot account for a situation in which losses are catastrophic and nearly universal," the collective wrote in a letter dated April 2, Roll Call reported. "Standard business interruption policies do not, and were not designed to, provide coverage against communicable diseases such as COVID-19, and as such, were not actuarially priced to do so." (Johnson, 4/8)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Speed Payments, Offer Loans To Support Providers During COVID-19
An increasing number of health insurers are supporting healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic by speeding up claims payments or offering loans to bolster their finances, which have been weakened by stay-at-home orders and the deferral of elective procedures. Highmark, the Pittsburgh-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurer, announced this week that it would provide $30 million in advance payments to more than 1,700 local primary care practices participating in its value-based reimbursement program. The payments would normally be made in June but will begin going out this week. (Livingston, 4/9)

The Hill: Coronavirus Double Whammy: Unemployed And Uninsured 
Millions of Americans have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic — but many also lost their employer-sponsored health insurance, dealing a double whammy to suffering workers. While many of those people are now eligible for insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces or Medicaid, the White House isn’t promoting either of those options. The Trump administration in recent years has also added more red tape and obstacles for people looking to sign up for those programs and hasn't shown any signs it will waive those requirements because of the pandemic. (Hellmann, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare: States Want To Pay Medicaid Providers Retainer Fees To Stay Open
State Medicaid directors Monday sent a letter to the CMS and the Office of Management and Budget asking both agencies to allow states to make retainer payments to essential Medicaid providers during the COVID-19 outbreak. "Many of the providers who serve our 72 million members are at risk of closing their doors in a matter of days or weeks due to extraordinary costs (e.g., staffing, PPE) and loss of typical visit volume," wrote the National Association of Medicaid Directors. (Brady, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Who Will Pay For COVID-19 Care?
In the absence of clear leadership from the federal government, states and private companies are pursuing their own plans to help Americans cope with the coronavirus pandemic. But while there are many examples of public and private officials working cooperatively, underlying political battles are also taking place, particularly when it comes to how to distribute funding already provided by Congress and funding that may be provided in the coming weeks and months. (4/9)

NPR: In Reversal, Federal Support For Coronavirus Testing Sites Continues
The Department of Health and Human Services is stepping back from a plan to end support on Friday for community-based coronavirus testing sites around the country. Instead the agency says local authorities can choose whether they want to transition to running the programs themselves or continue with federal oversight and help. The news came after NPR reported yesterday that some local officials were critical of plans to end the program before the pandemic peaks. (Brady, 4/9)

Politico: HHS, FEMA Ask States To Take Control Of Drive-Through Testing Sites
But an HHS spokesperson told POLITICO the federal government will continue to operate the sites if governors request such assistance — and said that the agency would not hold states to the deadline listed in a FEMA memo: 5 p.m. today. “I want to be clear that the federal government is not abandoning any of the community-based testing sites,” HHS testing czar Brett Giroir told reporters late Thursday. “Many people want the federal government to allow them to do the programs as they want — without the Public Health Service officers, without the restrictions that we have." (Lim, 4/9)

CNN: How The Government Delayed Coronavirus Testing 
A weeks-long testing delay that effectively blinded public health officials to the spread of the coronavirus in the US might have been avoided had federal agencies fully enacted their own plan to ramp up testing during a national health crisis. The plan, which is spelled out in an April 2018 agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and three of the biggest associations involved in lab testing, called for boosting the capacity of public health labs, bringing big commercial labs into the testing process early, and making sure labs would have whatever they needed to mount a rapid, large-scale response. (Ortega, Bronstein, Devine and Griffin, 4/9)

The Hill: Amazon Developing Lab To Test Workers For COVID-19 
Amazon is developing a lab to test all of its workers for coronavirus, the tech giant announced Thursday evening. The announcement comes as employees in at least 64 of its warehouses have tested positive for the disease as of Thursday. Amazon is developing a diagnostic test to determine whether a person has the virus, as opposed to a blood test that could detect antibodies made by the immune system when a person is exposed. (Moreno, 4/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Speedy Coronavirus Tests Make Inroads At Bay Area Clinics 
About a dozen Bay Area urgent care clinics are using new, faster coronavirus tests that generate results in minutes instead of the hours or days that most diagnostic tests take. Some doctors hope the rapid tests, such as the ID Now test made by an Illinois company, Abbott — which generates a positive result in five minutes and a negative result in 13 minutes — may soon become a much more common way to get tested for the novel coronavirus. But that is unlikely to happen right away because rapid-testing systems come with limitations that make them difficult to scale up immediately. (Ho, 4/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: COVID-19 Testing Site For Pre-Approved Patients To Open In Douglas Co.
The Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department on Friday will open its second drive-through COVID-19 testing site for pre-approved patients. The site will open April 10 at Hunter Memorial Park at 8830 Gurley Road in Douglasville. Douglas County has closed the park and its parking lots to the public to accommodate the health department’s needs. (Dixon, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: A Colorado Ski Community Planned To Test Everyone For COVID-19. Here’s What Happened. 
In late March, residents of the Colorado town of Telluride and surrounding San Miguel County stood in line, along marked spots spaced 6 feet apart, to have their blood drawn by medical technicians wearing Tyvek suits, face shields and gloves for a new COVID-19 test. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tests for the virus that causes the respiratory illness have been in short supply since the outbreak began, this was a new type of test. (Aschwanden, 4/10)

The New York Times: Small-Business Aid Stalls In Senate As Democrats Demand More Funds
A Trump administration request for quick approval of $250 billion in additional loans to help distressed small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis stalled Thursday in the Senate after Republicans and Democrats clashed over what should be included in the latest round of government relief. The dispute was a prelude to what is likely to be a far more complicated and consequential set of negotiations over a larger infusion of federal aid that lawmakers expect to consider in the coming weeks on the heels of the $2 trillion stimulus law enacted late last month. (Cochrane, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Senators Block New Virus Aid, Pelosi Decries 'Stunt'
GOP leader Mitch McConnell sought to keep Thursday’s debate limited to Trump’s request and wouldn’t accept Democratic additions. Even if the GOP plan had succeeded in the Senate, the Democratic-controlled House is determined to make changes to ensure small businesses in minority communities benefit from the burst of government funding. Democrats and Republicans agree the aid is urgently needed and talks are sure to continue, but it reinforces that Congress and the White House will need to find bipartisan agreement — especially with lawmakers scattered in their states and districts and both the House and Senate unable to conduct roll-call votes. (Taylor and Mascaro, 4/10)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP, Democrats Hit An Impasse Over Nature Of Next Round Of Coronavirus Aid
Democrats said the small-business loan program, called the Paycheck Protection Program, needed changes to ensure that less-sophisticated business owners can also access the funds. “In this process, many people who do not have banking relationships were going to be last in line,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) told reporters on a call Thursday. “That’s why when they asked for more money, we said, ‘Let’s help everybody here.’ ” Mrs. Pelosi said the Senate GOP bill wouldn’t be able to pass the House, but said it could be the “basis for some negotiation.” (Peterson and Duehren, 4/9)

Politico: Senate Brawl Derails Fast Push For New Coronavirus Relief
Democratic Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen each deemed McConnell’s move a “political stunt” and said the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program doesn’t need money at the moment. “It’s a good program, we strongly support it. It’s bipartisan. But this unanimous consent request was not negotiated. There was no effort made to follow the process that we could get this done. So it won’t get done,” said Cardin, the top Democrat on the Small Business Committee. “The majority leader knows that.” (Everett and Caygle, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Small-Business Loans Face Delays Even As Coronavirus Program Expands
The $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program opened a week ago with loans to companies with 500 or fewer employees and expands Friday to include independent contractors and self-employed individuals. Yet even as the program expands, the first applicants are still waiting for funding, fueling anxiety among business owners whose revenue has tanked and whose bills are piling up. “There are very few business owners who have successfully gotten the money,” said Amanda Ballantyne, executive director of the Main Street Alliance, a small-business advocacy group. “Money isn’t flowing yet.” (Hayashi, 4/10)

The Hill: Democrats Ramp Up Talks With Mnuchin On Next COVID-19 Relief Deal 
Senate Democrats are negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in hopes of reaching a deal to provide an additional $250 billion for a popular small-business emergency lending program and include in the same package more funds for hospitals and state governments.  Bipartisan talks are continuing behind the scenes despite a blowup on the Senate floor Thursday morning in which Republicans and Democrats blocked each other’s proposals to shore up funding shortfalls in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package. (Bolton, 4/9)

Politico: Democrats Seek Hazard Pay For Health Workers Amid Pandemic
Congressional Democrats are trying to add $13 per hour hazard payments for frontline health care workers up to a total of $25,000 in the next coronavirus relief package, along with $15,000 incentives for people who join the medical workforce surge during the pandemic. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said a so-called Heroes Fund could compensate nurses, EMTs and other workers for unanticipated risks as they confront a flood of new cases. (Doherty and Roubein, 4/9)

The Associated Press: For McConnell, Virus Carries Echo Of His Boyhood Polio
Mitch McConnell’s earliest childhood memory is the day he left the polio treatment center at Warm Springs, Ga., for the last time. He was just a toddler in 1944, when his father was deployed to World War II, his mother relocated the family to her sister’s home in rural Alabama and he came down with flu-like symptoms. While he eventually recovered, his left leg did not. It was paralyzed. (Mascaro, 4/10)

The New York Times: Virus Throws Millions More Out Of Work, And Washington Struggles To Keep Pace
When the federal government began rushing trillions of dollars of assistance to Americans crushed by the coronavirus pandemic, the hope was that some of the aid would allow businesses to keep workers on the payroll and cushion employees against job losses. But so far, a staggering number of Americans — more than 16 million — have lost their jobs amid the outbreak. Businesses continue to fail as retailers, restaurants, nail salons and other companies across the country run out of cash and close up shop as their customers are forced to stay at home. (Tankersley, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Dire Economic Numbers Intensify Debate Over Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions 
Record-setting jobless claims and dire economic forecasts are giving fresh urgency to the debate within the Trump administration and across the country over how rapidly coronavirus-fueled restrictions should be pared back so the economy can begin its revival. President Trump has expressed eagerness to move quickly, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC Thursday that he thought the U.S. economy could be ready to reopen by the end of May, “as soon as the president feels comfortable with the medical issues.” (Mitchell, Restuccia and Lubold, 4/9)

The Washington Post: 6.6 Million Americans Filed For Unemployed Benefits Last Week, Bringing The Coronavirus Total To Over 17 Million
The nation has not experienced this magnitude of layoffs and economic contraction since the Great Depression, many experts say, and recovery is unlikely to be swift. President Trump and Congress are racing to pass more relief money, but they failed to strike a deal Thursday on the details. Meanwhile, the $2 trillion package Congress approved last month is barely starting to get out as states and federal agencies that have been gutted for years struggle to process millions of aid applications from small businesses and the newly jobless. (Long and Van Dam, 4/9)

Reuters: High U.S. Unemployment, 2.5 Million Jobs Lost Through 2021: Survey
After a widely expected and sharp drop in the U.S. economy over the next three months, a panel of top business economists sees high joblessness persisting for more than a year in an outcome that would douse hopes for a quick, post-pandemic return to normal. (Schneider, 4/10)

The Hill: More Than 6 Million File For Jobless Benefits As Coronavirus Layoffs Wrack Economy 
Roughly 6.6 million Americans filed new applications for unemployment benefits in the first week of April as the coronavirus pandemic devastates the U.S. economy and forces millions out of work, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department. The 6,606,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance filed between April 1 and 7 dropped slightly from revised, record-high 6,867,000 new applicants during the previous week, extending an unprecedented surge in layoffs. (Lane, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus $600 Unemployment Stimulus Coming To California
Californians struggling to find work will receive an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits from a federal stimulus package starting Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said, as a deluge of 2.3 million new claims in the last month has the state struggling to get payments to those who have just lost their jobs. The additional relief money approved by Congress means California’s average weekly benefit of $340 will be boosted to $940, while those who get the maximum weekly state benefit will see checks increased to $1,050. The higher benefits will last for four months. (McGreevy, 4/9)

Reuters: Fed Rolls Out $2.3 Trillion To Backstop 'Main Street,' Local Governments
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a broad, $2.3 trillion effort to bolster local governments and small and mid-sized businesses, the latest in an expanding suite of programs meant to keep the U.S. economy intact as the country battles the coronavirus pandemic. (Shcneider, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Fed Expands Corporate-Debt Backstops, Unveils New Programs To Aid States, Cities And Small Businesses
“It’s really an awesome display of creativity and decisiveness—the breadth and diversity of programs,” said Antonio Weiss, a Treasury official in the Obama administration who is now a senior fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “They are taking a role well beyond any the Fed has played in its modern history, and the economy needs it.” In leading the Fed beyond past efforts to support lending during the Great Depression or after the 2008 financial crisis, Chairman Jerome Powell is pushing deeper into areas of credit and fiscal policy that the central bank has traditionally deferred to elected officials. (Timiraos, 4/9)

Politico: Treasury Expected To Get Started On Stimulus Payments Friday
The Treasury Department on Friday is expected to take the first step in getting economic stimulus payments to millions of Americans, who will get access to the money next week if they have direct deposit bank accounts, according to financial industry sources. Paper checks for people without direct deposit would start going out early next month, though some could take up to five months to reach recipients and there are still unanswered questions about how banks will handle some of them. (Lorenzo, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Crisis Legacy: Mountains Of Debt
The full impact of the coronavirus pandemic may take years to play out. But one outcome is already clear: Government, businesses and some households will be loaded with mountains of additional debt. The federal government budget deficit is on track to reach a record $3.6 trillion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and $2.4 trillion the year after that, according to Goldman Sachs estimates. Businesses are drawing down bank credit lines and tapping bond markets. Preliminary signs are emerging that some households are turning to credit for funds, too. (Hilsenrath, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Doesn’t Flu Tank Economy Like Covid-19?
As one state after another issued economy-wrecking stay-at-home orders to counter the spread of the new coronavirus, skeptics asked a confounding question: Millions of Americans get the flu each year, and tens of thousands die from it. Why doesn’t the flu cause a shutdown?According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 55 million Americans got the flu this season, and as many as 63,000 died. In comparison, more than 450,000 have been diagnosed with Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 16,000 have died. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. (McGinty, 4/10)

The New York Times: Everything Is Awful. So Why Is The Stock Market Booming?
What on earth is the stock market doing? Death and despair are all around. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits each of the last two weeks was about 10 times the previous record — and is probably being artificially held back by overloaded government systems. Vast swaths of American business are shuttered indefinitely. The economic quarter now underway will most likely feature Great Depression-caliber shrinkage in economic activity. (Irwin, 4/10)

Boston Globe: Layoffs Reach Staggering Levels For Mass. Hotel, Restaurant, And Construction Workers 
Massachusetts suffered its third straight week of crushing layoffs caused by the coronavirus crisis, with cumulative job losses topping 25 percent for lodging, food, and construction workers.Nearly 139,600 first-time jobless claims were filed in Massachusetts in the week ended April 4, the Baker administration said Thursday. More people have filed jobless claims in the past three weeks than in the prior 78 weeks combined, and workers everywhere know they are vulnerable. (Edelman, 4/9)

The New York Times: Does Vote-By-Mail Favor Democrats? No. It’s A False Argument By Trump.
President Trump said that if the United States switched to all-mail voting, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” The G.O.P. speaker of the House in Georgia said an all-mail election would be “extremely devastating to Republicans.” Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said universal mail voting would be “the end of our republic as we know it.” Yet leading experts who have studied voting by mail say none of that is true. (Epstein and Saul, 4/10)

The Washington Post Fact Check: Trump Once Again Misleads With Bogus Claims Of Voter Fraud
Trump, without evidence or by relying on dubious sources, has persistently claimed that massive voter fraud is occurring in the United States. The most recent major case allegedly involved a Republican operative, in North Carolina, but Trump instead suggests such fraud is being perpetrated on behalf of Democrats, especially in blue states. In recent days, he has attacked the whole notion of mail-in voting in a time of coronavirus social distancing, even though he votes by absentee ballot. (Kessler, 4/10)

The Associated Press: As Trump Rails Against Mail Voting, Some Allies Embrace It
President Donald Trump is warning without evidence that expanding mail-in voting will increase voter fraud. But several GOP state officials are forging ahead to do just that, undermining one of Trump’s arguments about how elections should be conducted amid the coronavirus outbreak. While Trump has complained that voting by mail was “ripe for fraud,” Republican state officials in Iowa, Ohio and West Virginia have all taken steps to ease access to mail-in ballots, following health officials’ warnings that voting in person can risk transmission of the deadly virus. (Riccardi, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Democrats Renew Vote-By-Mail Push As Virus Upends Elections
Democrats want to bolster mail-in voting and take other steps to make balloting easier this November in the next round of congressional efforts to revive the economy and battle the coronavirus pandemic, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. Pelosi’s still-evolving proposals Thursday drew immediate condemnation from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, echoing President Donald Trump’s opposition to federal attempts to prod states to relax restrictions for this fall’s presidential and congressional elections. (Fram and Cassidy, 4/10)

The New York Times: Inside Wisconsin’s Election Mess: Thousands Of Missing Or Nullified Ballots
Three tubs of absentee ballots that never reached voters were discovered in a postal center outside Milwaukee. At least 9,000 absentee ballots requested by voters were never sent, and others recorded as sent were never received. Even when voters did return their completed ballots in the mail, thousands were postmarked too late to count — or not at all. Cracks in Wisconsin’s vote-by-mail operation are now emerging after the state’s scramble to expand that effort on the fly for voters who feared going to the polls in Tuesday’s elections. (Corasaniti and Saul, 4/9)

Stat: Democrats Scramble To Refocus Their Health Platform On The Coronavirus
Democratic groups are scrambling to recalibrate the party’s health care messaging for the 2020 campaign to highlight the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Already, advocacy groups have aired commercials in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin attacking Trump for downplaying the crisis in its early stages and waiting too long to ramp up the procurement of critical supplies like test kits, masks, and ventilators. (Lev Facher, 4/10)

NPR: Coronavirus Will Reshape Voting Rights In The 2020 Election
Who does and doesn't get to vote in November could rest on how states, political parties and the federal government respond to the coronavirus threat to U.S. elections. The pandemic has already caused major disruptions. Partisan legal fights have erupted over how to address voters' concerns about showing up at the polls in person. This week's primary in Wisconsin, with long lines of voters waiting in protective gear to cast their ballots, was a dire warning of what could lie ahead. (Fessler, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Biden Woos Skeptical Sanders Backers On Health, College Debt
Joe Biden attempted to lure progressives to his presidential campaign on Thursday with promises to expand Medicare and forgive college debt. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee backed lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 while also pledging to cancel student debt for many low- and middle-income borrowers. (Weissert, Jaffe and Barrow, 4/8)

The Hill: Biden Releases Plans To Expand Medicare, Forgive Student Debt
Former Vice President Joe Biden released plans to expand Medicare eligibility and forgive some student debt as he works to unite a fractured Democratic base behind his presumptive 2020 presidential nomination. Biden announced Thursday he would lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60 and forgive federal student debt for low-income and middle-class people who attended public colleges and universities, historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), and underfunded minority-serving institution (MSI). (Axelrod, 4/9)

The New York Times: New Trump Attack Ad Falsely Suggests Former Governor Is Chinese
A new attack ad by President Trump’s re-election campaign portraying former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as soft on China includes an image of an Asian-American former governor of Washington State that appears to falsely suggest he is Chinese. The image, which appears briefly, was pulled from a 2013 event in Beijing, where Mr. Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, shared a stage with Gary Locke, the former governor of Washington, who also served as President Barack Obama’s commerce secretary and ambassador to China. Mr. Locke is Chinese-American. (Karni, 4/10)

ProPublica: Rationing Protective Gear Means Checking On Coronavirus Patients Less Often. This Can Be Deadly.
Every morning, between 7 and 8, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, several coronavirus patients are pronounced dead. It’s not that more people die at the beginning of the day, according to two medical providers at the hospital. But as a new shift arrives, doctors and nurses find patients who have died in the hours before and went undetected by a thin overnight staff. (Kaplan, Presser and Miller, 4/10)

The New York Times: Hospitals Warn Nurses And Doctors Not To Speak Out On Coronavirus
It was the fliers bearing his photo that made Adam Witt suspect something had gone deeply wrong. Last week, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where he worked as a nurse, posted the fliers at two security stations, declaring that he was persona non grata. “Mr. Witt is not allowed on property at JSUMC,” the writing said, beneath a picture of him looking tired and pained. “If he is seen on property please contact your supervisor immediately.” (Scheiber and Rosenthal, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Faulty N95 Masks Hamper Hospitals On Coronavirus Front Line
Some hospitals say they are buying faulty imitations of the high-quality N95 masks workers need to treat patients with Covid-19, a new hazard for officials scouring the globe for scarce protective gear. Hospital executives and local officials said they are trying to procure whatever masks they can from private stockpiles and lesser-known manufacturers around the world. Some have bought N95 masks—which block 95% of very small airborne particles—that are failing basic quality tests, indicating they might not guard against the new coronavirus. (Hufford, 4/9)

ProPublica: Pharmacy Workers Are Coming Down With COVID-19. But They Can’t Afford To Stop Working.
At his home in the Bronx, where he lies in bed with a fever, Jose Peralta keeps replaying the scene in his head. It was Monday, March 16, the start of an unusually hectic week at a Walgreens in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Peralta, a senior pharmacy technician, was on his way to take a break when he noticed a familiar customer waiting in line to pick up medication. “I thought, Gee it would be nice to help this guy,” Peralta said. “We’ve all been trying to minimize exposure and make sure that people don’t have to spend too long in the store.” (Kofman, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Rising From Sick Beds, COVID Medics Head Back To Front Lines
“Be strong, mum, we really love you,” is what Dr. Aurelie Gouel’s kids tell the ICU physician when she sets off for long hospital shifts trying to save critically ill coronavirus patients. Although aged just 4 and 6, Gouel’s children are acutely aware of how dangerous the disease can be not only because their mother has briefed them but also because she is among the more than 1.6 million people worldwide who have fallen sick. Tell-tale symptoms — fever, cough, intense fatigue, difficulty breathing — floored Gouel in March. (Leicester, 4/10)

The Washington Post: Hospitals Are Laying Off Staff In Midst Of The Coronavirus Pandemic
Hospitals across the country have deferred or canceled non-urgent surgeries to free up bed space and equipment for covid-19 patients. But that triage maneuver cut off a main source of income, causing huge losses that have forced some hospitals to let go of health-care workers as they struggle to treat infected patients. Last week, Bon Secours Mercy Health, which runs 51 hospitals in seven states, announced it would furlough 700 workers. (Harris, Sondel and Schneider, 4/9)

ABC News: DACA Health Care Workers Worry About Their Status Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
For Aldo Martinez, a paramedic in Fort Myers, Fla., who often works a 37-hour shift, the long days have become routine since the coronavirus pandemic broke out -- several of his colleagues have had to self-quarantine out of fears they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Aside from filling in for his colleagues, tending to the dozens of calls he receives each day, and keeping himself safe on the job, Aldo feels an extra degree of pressure as one of more nearly 680,000 young immigrants whose ability to work in the country would be threatened if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is not reinstated. (Garcia, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: ‘Baby, I Can’t Breathe’: America’s First ER Doctor To Die In Heat Of COVID-19 Battle
At about 5 a.m. on March 19, a New York City ER physician named Frank Gabrin texted a friend about his concerns over the lack of medical supplies at hospitals. “It’s busy ― everyone wants a COVID test that I do not have to give them,” he wrote in the message to Eddy Soffer. “So they are angry and disappointed. ”Worse, though, was the limited availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) — the masks and gloves that help keep health care workers from getting sick and spreading the virus to others. (Gee, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Doctors Struggle To Inform Families Of Coronavirus Deaths
Matt Kaufman is accustomed to death. He knows well the task of telling people that someone they love is gone — from a stroke, an overdose, a car accident, or any of the dire scenarios he often sees at the urban New Jersey hospital where he works. Usually, says the emergency room doctor, he can find a way to honor the gravity of the moment with small but meaningful gestures of compassion — waiting while a family member cries, touching them gently on the shoulder, or simply looking them in the eye to give them words nobody wants to hear. (Blake, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Testing Has Begun On Mask Decontamination System In Somerville 
Testing has begun on a massive mask decontamination machine in Somerville that is expected to be a game-changer in the state’s quest for personal protective equipment to protect health care workers on the front lines in the coronavirus pandemic. “We are doing test runs now,” said Dr. Paul Biddinger, medical director for emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners Healthcare. “We’re going through a phased start right now. ... We have to make sure it works.” (Finucane, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Universities In Boston Area To House Health Care Workers, First Responders During The COVID-19 Crisis
Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced Thursday that Boston University has made 75 beds available for employees of the Pine Street Inn, a homelessness shelter in the South End, while Northeastern University will have 135 rooms available to Boston first responders who need a place to stay and self-isolate when they’re not working. (Enos, 4/9)

Houston Chronicle: Local Professional Costume Maker Sewing Hundreds Of Face Masks For Healthcare Workers 
Local costume designer and professional seamstress Romy McCloskey began making homemade face masks for her husband more than a month ago as he continued to work in his office during the beginning phases of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic.Her efforts since then have grown exponentially, and the world-renowned fashion creator and IMDB-recognized costume designer — whose work has been worn on the Red Carpet of the Academy Awards and other film productions — is now making hundreds of handmade surgical face masks in her home workshop, including a new request to make masks for U.S. Postal Service workers in The Woodlands. (Forward, 4/9)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Some Georgia Workers Worry About Safety Amid Coronavirus
Over the past two weeks, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has heard from dozens of Georgians who feel they are working in unsafe environments. They ranged from call center to hospital workers. Their main complaints were inadequate social distancing, not being allowed to work from home and lack of hazard pay. Almost all declined to speak on the record, for fear of losing their jobs. (Suggs, 4/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Group Fears Nurses Jetting To NYC Could Leave Georgia In The Lurch
The viral photo offered an image of solidarity in the thick of a crisis: In the cabin of a Southwest Airlines plane bound for New York City, more than two dozen Georgia health care workers look up from their seats, all smiling and making heart shapes with their hands. Southwest posted the photo on Instagram late last month, just as the novel coronavirus pandemic was exploding in New York. “This photo embodies it all: bravery, courage, and sacrifice,” the post said. But back in Georgia, where COVID-19 infections are expected to peak in the coming weeks, the image of nurses packed into an outbound airliner could have troubling implications. Fears are stirring of what could happen if too many Georgia doctors and nurses are on the front lines somewhere else. (Edwards and Stirgus, 4/9)

WBUR: Hospital Cleaner Looks At Coronavirus Pandemic As A Chance To Give Back To Her Community 
Westchester County alone has more than 15,000 coronavirus cases as of Thursday, with a rate of 1,640 infected people per 100,000, according to data from The New York Times. That’s more than New York City, which has a rate of 969 cases per 100,000 people. Plus, White Plains Hospital is a 20-minute drive from New Rochelle, where an exponentially growing cluster of coronavirus cases was discovered in early March, kicking off the greater state battle with the virus. (Young and Jeffery, 4/9)

WBUR: Frontline Nurses Frustrated Over Lack Of Support, Union President Says
Nurses throughout the country are protesting a lack of protections for treating patients with COVID-19. And many nurses are sick, too. In California, the state department of public health is reporting more than 1,600 health care workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Mosley and Raphelson, 4/9)

State House News Service: Baker Signs New Orders To Bolster Medical Staff Ahead Of COVID-19 Case Surge 
Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday signed three executive orders intended to expand the state's health care capacity as it prepares for a coming surge in COVID-19 cases. One will make it easier for foreign-educated doctors to get licensed in Massachusetts, another will allow nursing school graduates and those in their final semester to practice, while directly supervised, before they receive their license, and the third mandates that insurers must cover all medically required costs of COVID-19 treatment, with no charge to patients, in out-of-network hospitals. (Lannan, 4/9)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Coronavirus Kills Two Health Care Workers In Northern Nevada  
Two of the 10 COVID-19 deaths reported in Washoe County as of Thursday have been health workers, the latest coming Tuesday. Nurse Vianna Thompson, 52, worked floating shifts at the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System and at Northern Nevada Medical Center, both in Reno. She died Tuesday at the VA hospital, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. (Dentzer, 4/9)

The New York Times: At The Center Of A Storm: The Search For A Proven Coronavirus Treatment
Beginning every morning at 5:30, Dr. Andre Kalil makes himself a double espresso, runs 10 kilometers, makes additional double espressos for himself and his wife, and heads to his office at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. A deluge awaits him. Calls and insistent emails pile up each day. Patients and their doctors are clamoring for untested coronavirus treatments, encouraged by President Trump, who said that “we can’t wait” for rigorous studies of the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and that ill patients should have ready access to experimental medicines. (Kolata, 4/9)

Stat: The Coronavirus Sneaks Into Cells Through A Key Receptor. Could Targeting It Lead To A Treatment?
Nearly 20 years ago, when a different coronavirus struck, Michael Farzan and his team figured out how it was getting into human cells: targeting a specific receptor called ACE2 found on certain cells. During this year’s ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak, that receptor has attracted fresh attention as a potential target for drug companies because it seems to offer a cellular doorknob for this coronavirus, too. (Sheridan, 4/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Haywire Immune Response Eyed In Coronavirus Deaths, Treatment
An immune system gone haywire may be doing more damage than the coronavirus itself in patients with the severest forms of Covid-19, doctors and scientists say, a growing theory that could point the way to potential treatments. Much remains unknown about the path the virus takes in the sickest patients, but an increasing number of experts believe a hyperactive immune response, rather than the virus, is what ultimately kills many Covid-19 patients. (Walker and Hopkins, 4/9)

Stat: Doctors ‘Keep An Open Mind’ About Unproven Coronavirus Drug, But Worry It Could Do More Harm Than Good
For President Trump, whether Covid-19 patients should take a once-obscure malaria drug is not even a close call: “What do you have to lose?” he said during a briefing this week. “And a lot of people are saying that, and are taking it. ”For physicians on the frontlines, the question of whether to use that drug or other unproven medicines is among the most challenging they’ve faced: They’re trained to make decisions based on rigorous data but have little to go on in treating patients with an entirely new disease. (Bond, 4/10)

Stat: How Will The Pandemic Shape Biotech In The Months Ahead?
The biopharma industry is racing to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But the industry has also suffered massive disruptions as shelter-in-place orders have brought some projects screeching to a halt. A slew of pharmaceutical and biotech companies have suspended their clinical trials in recent weeks. Brian Skorney, a senior biotech research analyst at investment bank Baird, spoke with STAT about how the pandemic has affected the industry and how those disruptions will shape drug development in the months and years to come. (Feuerstein, Garde and Robbins, 4/10)

CNN: How A 100-Year-Old Vaccine For Tuberculosis Could Help Fight The Novel Coronavirus
As researchers scramble to find new drugs and vaccines for Covid-19, a vaccine that is more than a century old has piqued researchers' interests. The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine -- which was first developed to fight off tuberculosis -- is being studied in clinical trials around the world as a way to fight the novel coronavirus. (Yu, 4/10)

The Associated Press: No Halt To Culture Wars During Coronavirus Outbreak
A partisan fight over voting in Wisconsin was the first issue linked to the coronavirus to make it to the Supreme Court. Efforts to limit abortion during the pandemic could eventually land in the justices’ hands. Disputes over guns and religious freedom also are popping up around the country. The virus outbreak has put much of American life on hold, but the combatants in the nation’s culture wars aren’t taking a cease-fire. (Sherman and Gresko, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Imposes New Limits On Texas Abortion Ban During Coronavirus Crisis 
A federal judge again restrained Texas from banning abortion during the coronavirus public-health crisis, this time adopting a more limited approach that allows the state to prohibit the procedure in some circumstances, but not others. The new temporary restraining order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin comes after a federal appeals court overturned a broader order he issued against Texas on March 30. (Kendall, 4/9)

CNN: Federal Court Again Allows Some Abortions In Texas Despite Governor's Coronavirus Restrictions
Judge Lee Yeakel blocked the state from enforcing the order specifically "as a categorical ban on all abortions provided by Plaintiffs" and specifically against those providing medication abortions or providing surgical abortions to abortion-seekers who would reach 22 weeks since their last menstrual period -- the cutoff to receive an abortion in Texas -- by the order's expiration on April 21. (Kelly, 4/9)

Houston Chronicle: Judge’s Order Makes Some Abortions Legal Again In Texas, At Least For A Day
The ruling, another pivot in a now dizzying legal battle, is narrower than one issued last week, which was overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It allows medication abortions, in which doctors give women pills, as well as surgical abortions for women who would be too far along in their pregnancies to legally obtain one by the time the state’s emergency ban on nonessential surgeries is lifted April 21. (Blackman, 4/9)

NPR: Legal Fight Heats Up In Texas Over Ban On Abortions Amid Coronavirus
Governors across the country are banning elective surgery as a means of halting the spread of the coronavirus. But in a handful of states that ban is being extended to include a ban on all abortions. So far the courts have intervened to keep most clinics open. The outlier is Texas, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week upheld the governor's abortion ban. (Totenberg, 4/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Officials Investigating Abortion Clinics During Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Order 
State officials are investigating abortion clinics in Louisiana during the coronavirus pandemic to determine whether they are violating the state's stay-at-home order by performing the procedure, amid a push by Republicans across the country to deem the procedure non-essential. (Karlin, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Did Ohio Get It Right? Early Intervention, Preparation For Pandemic May Pay Off.
On Feb. 26, two days before President Trump called the coronavirus outbreak the Democratic Party’s “new hoax,” the Cleveland Clinic alerted the public that it was prepared to quickly open 1,000 additional hospital beds should the need arise. On March 4, the day Trump boasted that “we have a very small number” of infected people in the United States, Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, shut down a weekend fitness expo expected to draw 60,000 people a day to a Columbus convention center. There were no identified coronavirus cases in the state at the time. (Bernstein, 4/9)

CIDRAP: White House Names Next Likely COVID-19 Hot Spots
Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia will likely be the next novel coronavirus hot spots, according to the White House task force. During yesterday evening's briefing, Vice President Mike Pence said Philadelphia was of particular concern. Pence said he spoke to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf yesterday about concerning trend lines in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In total, Pennsylvania has confirmed 18,228 cases of COVID-19. (Soucheray, 4/9)

Politico: Mayors Look To Each Other, Not Trump, On Coronavirus Response
Mayors representing some of the country’s emerging hot spots for the coronavirus are leaning on one another — not the federal government — as they struggle to prevent their cities from becoming the next New York. Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration has made an effort “to be particularly responsive to” areas where a growth in cases has been identified, such as Chicago, Detroit, Denver and cities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana. (McCaskill, 4/9)

The Associated Press: California Governor Encouraged By Drop In ICU Placements
California saw its first daily decrease in intensive care hospitalizations during the coronavirus outbreak, a key indicator of how many health care workers and medical supplies the state needs, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday. The rate of all virus hospitalizations has slowed this week. Those in the ICU need the highest level of care, and so it was particularly encouraging that the number of patients in those rooms actually dropped 1.9% on Wednesday to 1,132. (Beam, 4/10)

The Hill: California Sees First Decrease In Coronavirus ICU Hospitalizations 
California experienced its first decrease in coronavirus intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalizations, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday. The number of patients in the ICU dropped 1.9 percent from Wednesday's report, to a total of 1,132 people across the state. At the same time, the rate of total virus hospitalizations has slowed down this week. But the governor warned against premature celebration or speculation that the outbreak was over. (Coleman, 4/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus: Many SF Complaints About Nonessential Construction 
San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection has been inundated with complaints of nonessential construction being done in violation of the coronavirus health order, mostly driven by residents observing work illegally continuing in their neighborhoods as they shelter in place. Between March 30 and April 8, the city received 730 complaints of unauthorized work, 180 of which came directly to the building department, and 550 lodged through the city’s 311 customer service center. (Dineen, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Could Make Affordable Housing In California Cost More
When developer Ginger Hitzke first proposed an affordable housing complex on a parking lot in Solana Beach, she envisioned building 18 new homes for low-income families and adults at a cost of $414,000 per apartment. More than a decade later, her project has shrunk in size by nearly half and become more than twice as expensive. At $1.1 million per apartment, the Pearl is the priciest affordable housing project in the state and, likely, the country. (Dillon, Poston and Barajas, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Montgomery County Mask Mandate: To Curb Coronavirus Spread, County To Soon Require Face Coverings At All Essential Businesses
Face masks, once thought of as an unnecessary precaution for healthy people during the novel coronavirus pandemic, are now being mandated in cities and counties across the United States. Late last week, the federal government reversed its previous position on face coverings, issuing guidance that urges people to wear them in public places. President Trump stopped short of saying it should be required, but some local officials have taken enforcement into their own hands. (Tan, 4/9)

The Hill: Louisiana State Lawmaker Dies Of Coronavirus 
A Louisiana state lawmaker died of coronavirus Thursday, as the disease makes its way through the southern United States. State Rep. Reggie Bagala (R), 54, was hospitalized last week after contracting the illness, New Orleans station WDSU reported. He was a freshman House member representing parts of Jefferson and Lafourche parishes. (Coleman, 4/9)

CNN: Florida Governor Falsely Claims The Coronavirus Hasn't Killed Anyone Under 25 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falsely claimed Thursday that the novel coronavirus hasn't killed anyone under 25 nationwide while discussing a timeline for reopening schools in the state. "This particular pandemic is one where, I don't think nationwide there's been a single fatality under 25. For whatever reason it just doesn't seem to threaten, you know, kids," DeSantis said at an educators' meeting to discuss distance learning. (Henry and LeBlanc, 4/9)

The Hill: National Guard Deployed To NJ Veterans Home That Suffered 10 Coronavirus Deaths
The National Guard will be deployed to a New Jersey veterans home that has suffered at least 10 coronavirus deaths in the past two weeks. The Army National Guard will head to the New Jersey Veterans Home in Paramus, where 23 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus, a New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs spokesman told NBC News Wednesday. Forty-seven residents are still awaiting their test results. Forty medics from the Army National Guard will help with nursing duties with, spokesman Kryn Westhoven said. (Coleman, 4/9)

The New York Times: Did New Yorkers Who Fled To Second Homes Bring The Virus?
About two weeks ago, New Jersey’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, urged residents with second homes not to decamp to the shore. When it became clear that his message had not been not fully received, the governor took things a step further: He authorized towns and counties to restrict or prohibit rentals at hotels, motels and short-term lodging to stop travelers from transmitting the virus. “No one should be leaving their primary residences,” Mr. Murphy said last weekend. (Nir and Tully, 4/10)

ABC News: 2nd TSA Employee Dies From COVID-19, Over 300 Employees Have Tested Positive 
A total of 329 Transportation Security Administration employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and two have died according to an internal briefing led by TSA Administrator David Pekoske, and viewed by ABC News. The reported number increased by 162 in the past week, while 13 of those employees have recovered, Pekoske said. (Maile and Kaji, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Reports Of Child Abuse And Neglect Are Plummeting Across New England. That’s Not A Good Thing
In a normal week in March, Massachusetts officials can be bombarded with thousands of allegations of children being left unsupervised, beaten, or worse. But, almost overnight, those reports have been sliced by more than half. Child welfare workers who spend their nights hustling to emergency calls are seeing far fewer. None of that is good news. (Stout, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Eight More Rhode Islanders Have Died And 277 More Are Infected, But The Worst Is Yet To Come 
The number of Rhode Islanders becoming infected with the coronavirus and dying from associated causes is rising rapidly each day -- but the worst is yet to come. That was the message Thursday from Governor Gina M. Raimondo, who grew circumspect as she answered a question about when Rhode Island can expect to see a surge of cases -- and what that will look like. (Milkovits, 4/9)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: After Buying 24,000 Meals, New Orleans Effort To Save Restaurants Is Surviving Day By Day
Avery’s on Tulane looks closed these days, like countless other New Orleans restaurants during the coronavirus shutdown. But it's busy a few times a week as Christy and Justin Pitard, the literal mom and pop behind this Mid-City po-boy shop, cook up special catering orders for Feed the Front Line NOLA. The New Orleans nonprofit whisks the food to local hospitals, and pays the restaurant for the food. (McNulty, 4/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin State Parks, DMV Offices Close, But Small Church Services OK
Add two more well-known Wisconsin fixtures — one that's fun, and one often the opposite of fun — to the growing list of closings tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Forty of Wisconsin's state parks were closing at the end of the day Thursday. Meanwhile, the Department of Motor Vehicles drastically reduced its operations. (Daykin, 4/9)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Hospitals Ban Visitors, So Coronavirus Patients Die Alone
Coronavirus has swept away people, sometimes with astonishing speed, landing them in hospitals where they are frequently cut off from loved ones because of the risk of spreading the illness. When the end has come for the sickest, the goodbyes from family have often come over the phone. And sometimes there has been no goodbye at all. (Diedrich and Rutledge, 4/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Colleges Getting Stimulus Grants For Students Hurt By COVID-19
The federal government Thursday announced more than $6.28 billion will flow to U.S. colleges and universities to distribute cash grants to low-income college students experiencing hardships as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The grants are coming out of the nearly $31 billion Congress allocated to the U.S. Department of Education for students, K-12 schools, and higher education institutions under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. (Downey, 4/9)

CNN: Prisons And Coronavirus: US Jails And Prisons Are Turning Into 'Petri Dishes.' Deputies Are Falling Ill, Too
In the United States, the largest known concentration of coronavirus cases outside of hospitals isn't on a cruise ship or in a nursing home. It's at a jail in Chicago. At least 276 detainees and 172 staff members -- mostly correctional deputies -- at Cook County Jail have tested positive for coronavirus, the county sheriff's office said Wednesday. One detainee who tested positive for the virus has died, and at least 21 detainees are hospitalized. Across the country, prisons and jails have become hotbeds for coronavirus. Close confinement is likely fueling the spread. (Yan, 4/10)

USA Today: Coronavirus Rips Through Prisons, Striking Inmates And Workers
As the coronavirus storm was making landfall in the USA, prison and jail officials across the country anxiously braced for the onslaught. Thousands of potentially vulnerable inmates were set free or sent to home confinement to reduce the risk of large-scale outbreaks. Visitation was halted, and isolation wards were designated for those who would be exposed. Detention authorities are deep into managing hundreds of infected and quarantined inmates, whose numbers have been changing by the day. (Johnson, 4/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Prisoners Riot As Coronavirus Tensions Rise
Coronavirus-fueled tensions inside the nation’s prisons and jails are boiling over into riots, standoffs and hunger strikes. Officers at a Washington state penitentiary fired nonlethal rounds and used pepper spray to break up a demonstration of more than 100 inmates Wednesday night after six inmates tested positive there, prison officials said. (Elinson and Gurman, 4/9)

Tacoma News Tribune: State Considering Release Of Nonviolent Offenders To Free Up Prison Space, Inslee Says
A day after a COVID-19 outbreak triggered an inmate disturbance at the Monroe Correctional Complex, Gov. Jay Inslee said the state is considering releasing nonviolent offenders early to free up space so inmates at risk of infection can be isolated. “I think public safety calls for that and we’re looking for reasonable things to do for some nonviolent offenders,” he said Thursday, saying details are expected within a few days. The prison system has begun to look at the number of nonviolent drug offenders who are within 60 days of their release, said Stephen Sinclair, Secretary of the Department of Corrections. (Drew and Krell, 4/10)

CBS News: Judge Rejects Release Of Vulnerable Cook County Jail Inmates, Orders Coronavirus Testing
A federal judge on Thursday denied a request to release medically vulnerable inmates at Chicago's Cook County jail but ordered officials to step up coronavirus testing for detainees and improve sanitation protocols. The facility is experiencing one of the largest outbreaks from a single location in the country. (Kendall, 4/10)

The New York Times: Jailed On A Minor Parole Violation, He Caught The Coronavirus And Died
Last summer, Raymond Rivera was arrested on a minor parole violation and sent to Rikers Island, where he waited months for a final decision on his release. As his case dragged on, the coronavirus spread through the jail complex and he became sick. On Friday, state parole officials finally lifted the warrant against Mr. Rivera as he lay in a bed at the Bellevue Hospital Center. He died the next day. “It was a tragedy the way it happened,” said Mr. Rivera’s wife, who asked not to be named to protect her privacy. “Why did he have to wait so long?” (Ransom, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Inside The Deadliest Federal Prison, The Seeping Coronavirus Creates Fear And Danger
As the coronavirus pandemic seeps into the 122-facility federal prison system, the Oakdale prison has become the deadliest. In the last three weeks, eight inmates in the U.S. Bureau of Prisons system have died of covid-19; five of them were imprisoned at Oakdale. More than 100 Oakdale inmates are under quarantine, and four staff members have tested positive for the disease. The virus is festering at Oakdale as older inmates and prisoners with serious medical conditions live among the general population. Prisoners, fearing they may be abandoned in an isolation cell and left for dead, are not reporting their symptoms. Prison staff walk the grounds, often without masks and gloves, failing to observe social distancing with either inmates or themselves. (Kindy, 4/9)

ABC News: Locked Up To Locked Out: Recently Released Prisoners Face Unprecedented Challenges Amid Coronavirus Crisis 
By the time Ronald Reynolds took his first steps of freedom in 29 years out of the front gates of Louisiana’s State Penitentiary, the coronavirus had already begun its quiet, deadly spread through America’s communities that would upend the lives of millions in a span of weeks. It was Jan. 29, and Reynolds had plans in store. After being convicted of second-degree murder in 1993 and sentenced to life without parole, Reynolds spent his days in the Angola prison using his certification in American Sign Language to assist deaf inmates and working as a hospice volunteer. (Mallin and Barr, 4/10)

WBUR: Coronavirus Cases More Than Double Overnight At Essex County Jail 
The number of coronavirus cases at the Essex County jail more than doubled overnight, after advocates and inmates complained the sheriff hasn't done enough to stop the spread of virus. (Willmsen, 4/9)

The Marshall Project: I Was A Prison Hospice Aide. Then Came Coronavirus.
Death is a word not often uttered among prisoners. When a person goes to prison, there are two days that mean the most: the day you get in and the day you get out. No one wants to get out by dying. I know all of this not just because I’m a prisoner myself and want to see the free sky one day. I know it also because my job in here is to work in the hospice section of our prison, helping incarcerated men die. And so I know firsthand how the looming threat of COVID-19 is being absorbed by all of us behind the walls. (Gant, 4/10)

Boston Globe: ‘They Will Not Tell Us How Bad It Is’: Families Want More Disclosure On Nursing Home Coronavirus Outbreaks 
As the number of COVID-19 cases in long-term-care facilities soars, families are growing increasingly frustrated with state officials, saying they have allowed the sites to hide crucial information about how deeply the virus has infiltrated and how their loved ones are doing. On Thursday, Massachusetts reported 1,633 cases among staff and residents of long-term care facilities, an increase of 32 percent from Wednesday, with some 159 sites reporting at least one case. (Krantz, Murphy and Weisman, 4/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: Families Left In Dark As Coronavirus Races Through Bay Area Nursing Homes 
Still, two months later as outbreaks infect hundreds and kill dozens at Bay Area nursing homes, many senior living centers remain dangerously unprepared and poorly equipped. Many facilities are also leaving families and the public in the dark about the severity of the threat — and so are several Bay Area counties, which either didn’t respond to requests for data about the outbreaks or declined to share the information with The Chronicle. (Fagone, Dizikes and Thadani, 4/9)

Boston Globe: Before Coronavirus, 2 Out Of 3 Mass. Nursing Homes Broke The Rules For Preventing Outbreaks 
Nearly two-thirds of nursing homes in Massachusetts were cited at least once within the past three years for a deficiency in infection control, violations that ranged from staff not following basic hygiene measures to failing to track and monitor outbreaks, according to records from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Even weeks into the coronavirus outbreak, nursing homes across the nation have been failing to follow rudimentary infection-control rules in startling numbers. (Rocheleau and Weisman, 4/9)

NBC News: Pennsylvania Nursing Home Was Flagged For Dangerous Conditions Before Coronavirus Outbreak
The Pennsylvania nursing home where all 750 residents and staffers may be infected with the coronavirus was hit last year with a "below average grade" by state inspectors who warned that lax sanitary conditions could lead to the "spread of infection and diseases," Medicare records revealed. The revelation came as five deaths were reported at the Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. Operators of the facility, where more than 40 infections had already been tallied, said Monday they were no longer counting cases "and presuming all staff and residents may be positive." (Siemaszko, 4/9)

Cincinnati Enquirer: The Coronavirus Has Hit Some Hamilton County Nursing Homes.
The novel coronavirus is in some Hamilton County nursing homes. But Hamilton County Public Health won't say where. There are 40 long-term care patients in Hamilton County who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to statistics from the health department obtained by The Enquirer. The health department wouldn't disclose if any of them died. (Wartman, 4/9)

NBC News: Pandemic Decision-Making: Why Humans Aren't Wired To Understand The Coronavirus
When people make decisions, psychologists have found, two main systems influence their thinking and decision-making: gut feelings and logical analysis. One is more immediate and based on intuition. The other is slower, more thoughtful and based on evidence... Human intuition, however, is not particularly well geared to a pandemic. (Chow, 4/9)

ABC News: Does Air Pollution Increase Risk From COVID-19? Here's What We Know
A newly released study from researchers at Harvard University has brought more attention to the impact pollution in the air can have on patients who contract the novel coronavirus. The study connected exposure to high levels of air pollution to higher rates of death from COVID-19, raising concerns for the millions of Americans living in cities that see increased rates of pollution, made up of tiny particles that often come from high levels of traffic and industrial facilities. (Ebbs, 4/10)

The Associated Press: In A Test Of Faith, Christians Mark Good Friday In Isolation
Christians are commemorating Jesus’ crucifixion without the solemn church services or emotional processions of past years, marking Good Friday in a world locked down by the coronavirus pandemic. A small group of clerics are to hold a closed-door service in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead. They will then walk the Via Dolorosa, the ancient route where he is believed to have carried the cross before his execution at the hands of the Romans. (Krauss, 4/10)

The New York Times: When Parents Get Sick, Who Cares For The Kids?
The symptoms at first were subtle — a mild cough that felt more like a tickle in the throat than an actual harbinger of illness. But two days later, on the morning of March 17, Carolyn Kylstra and her husband awoke to classic coronavirus-related symptoms: a hacking cough, chills and body aches. A video appointment with their primary care physician later that day confirmed what they had suspected; they were most likely infected with the virus. (Levine, 4/9)

ABC News: Fauci: 'In A Perfect World' Americans Would Stop Shaking Hands 
Should the coronavirus pandemic mark the end of the American handshake? Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, thinks so. (Cathey, 4/9)

ABC News: 'Torn Up': African American Family Mourns 4 Loved Ones As COVID-19 Racial Disparities Exposed 
In the span of just 10 days, Kevin Franklin lost his 86-year-old mother and three big brothers to the coronavirus pandemic, and he says his loved ones didn't know they had the disease until it was too late. "No one seemed sick. Nobody complained about nothing," the 56-year-old Franklin told ABC News. "We didn't know my mom had it until my mom went into the hospital." (Hutchinson and Carrega, 4/10)

The Washington Post: The Coronavirus Was Spreading. The Parties Went On. Now Comes The Pain.
Jazz drifted through the air, mingling with laughter among old friends. Burgers were on the grill. Drinks were being poured. It was the first Friday of March, and everyone among the tight circle of active and retired sheriff’s officers who had been gathering annually for 20 years knew exactly where to be: Bert’s, a legendary Detroit hangout. (Witte and Janes, 4/9)

Kaiser Health News: Millennial Zeitgeist: Attitudes About COVID-19 Shift As Cases Among Young Adults Rise
When Laura Mae, 27, first heard about the coronavirus, it didn’t seem like a big deal. “I’m in college, and school was still going on. It didn’t really sink in,” she said. “And once it did start spreading, I thought, if I did get it, I’m young and healthy, I’ll be fine. I don’t need to worry.” It was Saturday, March 14, and concerns about the coronavirus were amping up around the nation, said Laura Mae, who lives in Milwaukee. (Knight, 4/10)

NBC News: Black Men Fear Homemade Masks Could Exacerbate Racial Profiling
A 15-pound poodle-mix, Banneker is far from your typical guard dog. Yet his owner, André Carrington, always makes sure to bring the puppy along as an added layer of protection when they leave home in Philadelphia for their daily walks. “I think it actually matters that when I’m walking in public, the fact that I have a cute dog makes people feel more comfortable,” Carrington, an associate professor of African American literature at Drexel University, told NBC News. “I don’t think it would be as easy for me to avoid scrutiny in public, especially wearing my mask, if I didn’t have Banneker with me.” (Aviles, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Spring-Cleaning Surge Leaves Residential Garbage Cans Overflowing
On a warm morning amid a global health pandemic, Fairfax County sanitation workers reported for duty on a day that brought another increased workload. Wearing N95 masks, they leaped on and off a county garbage truck, emptying trash carts that have been unusually full in recent weeks. Homebound residents in the Washington region are busying themselves with spring cleaning and yardwork during the coronavirus shutdown, putting stress on some suburban trash collection systems. (Moyer and Chikwendiu, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Lives Lost: At 97, World War II Vet Takes A Final Road
In his final months, Bill Chambers couldn’t walk, but he found peace in motion. Three times a week, his oldest daughter, Patty Cooper, would meet him at the adult family home where he lived with four other World War II veterans. The caretakers would load him into her Volvo SUV, and she would drive him through the forests, farmlands and suburbs east of Seattle. (Johnson, 4/10)

Kaiser Health News: Comic Relief From COVID-19: Leaders Really Meme It When They Say Stay Home
As their city confronts a wave of COVID-19 patients, Chicagoans are managing to get some belly laughs. The source? Memes of their leader staring down would-be social-distancing violators. In one doctored image, a somber Mayor Lori Lightfoot peers down from the roof of the famous Superdawg hotdog stand alongside a pair of wiener statues. (Jaklevic, 4/10)

NPR: Bill Gates, Who Has Warned About Pandemics For Years, On The U.S. Response So Far
Five years ago, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates gave a TED Talk about global pandemics, warning that the world was not ready to take one on. Now, in the midst of such an outbreak, he has been thinking about how to make up for lost time. Gates has invested in coronavirus research as well as global health more broadly. (Glenn, 4/9)

The New York Times: Smokers And Vapers May Be At Greater Risk For Covid-19
Anxious times — like a pandemic — can lead to unhealthy but self-soothing habits, whether it’s reaching for a bag of potato chips, more chocolate or another glass of wine. But some stress-reducing behaviors are alarming to medical experts right now — namely vaping and smoking of tobacco or marijuana. Because the coronavirus attacks the lungs, this is exactly the moment, they say, when people should be tapering — or better yet, stopping — their use of such products, not escalating them. (Hoffman, 4/9)

CIDRAP: Studies: Smoking, Age, Other Factors Raise Risk Of COVID-19 Death
The increased risk for COVID-19 pneumonia in people who smoke cigarettes or have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be at least partly explained by increased levels of an enzyme that enables the virus to more easily enter their lungs, according to a research letter published today in the European Respiratory Journal. (Van Beusekom, 4/9)

Boston Globe: A New Warning: Vaping And Smoking May Increase Risk That COVID-19 Will Hit You Hard 
Attorney General Maura Healey and Massachusetts General Hospital warned that smoking and vaping may increase the risk of severe illness from COVID-19, in an advisory sent Thursday to medical professionals, educators, and parent and advocacy groups. Healey and Mass. General assert that smoking and vaping damage the lungs and weaken the immune system, putting people at greater risk of needing hospitalization and advanced life support if they become infected. (Freyer, 4/9)

The New York Times: Facing Food Insecurity On The Front Lines
In an average year, meeting the needs of hungry New Yorkers is challenging. In 2020, food banks in New York and beyond are finding that taking on this mission requires resourcefulness, resilience and the rethinking of how those in need can be served. Food Bank for New York City usually supplies about 1,000 institutions, such as food pantries and soup kitchens, with groceries. Now, 40 percent of them have suspended operations because of the coronavirus outbreak, said Leslie Gordon, chief executive of Food Bank for New York City. (Aridi, 4/10)

The Associated Press: Schools Struggle To Safely Get Free Meals To Needy Students
When schools started closing across the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic, they scrambled to keep feeding millions of students from poor families who depend on free and reduced-price meals every day. Cities big and small quickly ran into problems: food workers, teachers and volunteers manning curbside pickup locations came down with the virus themselves or were too scared to report for duty. Some districts have been forced to suspend their programs altogether. (Vertuno, Attanasio and Mone, 4/10)

Reuters: Sign Of The Times: Mile-Long Line Of Cars Outside California Grocery Giveaway
A pop-up food pantry in Southern California on Thursday drew so many people that the line of cars waiting for free groceries stretched about a mile (1.6 km), a haunting sign of how the coronavirus pandemic has hurt the working poor. (Nicholson, 4/9)

The New York Times: Poultry Worker’s Death Highlights Spread Of Coronavirus In Meat Plants
Annie Grant, 55, had been feverish for two nights. Worried about the coronavirus outbreak, her adult children had begged her to stay home rather than return to the frigid poultry plant in Georgia where she had been on the packing line for nearly 15 years. But on the third day she was ill, they got a text from their mother. “They told me I had to come back to work,” it said. Ms. Grant ended up returning home, and died in a hospital on Thursday morning after fighting for her life on a ventilator for more than a week. (Jordan and Dickerson, 4/9)

The Washington Post: He’s Delivering Your Groceries To You. He’s Also Risking His Life.
You have to protect the things you can, so when the cashier at the Harris Teeter checkout counter asked Matt Gillette if he wanted anything double-bagged, he considered the stakes. “I’m really just worried about the eggs,” he said, before carefully wrapping a second bag around a carton. The eggs were not his. (McCarthy, 4/9)

KQED: Another Whole Foods Employee In SF Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
A worker at a Whole Foods Market location on Market Street in San Francisco has been diagnosed with COVID-19, a company spokesperson confirmed to KQED on Thursday. The diagnosis marks at least the second confirmed case of a Whole Foods employee in San Francisco coming down with the coronavirus. A worker at the grocery chain's Stanyan Street location previously tested positive in March. Both stores remain open. (Garces, 4/9)

The New York Times: Robots Welcome To Take Over, As Pandemic Accelerates Automation
The recycling industry was already struggling before the pandemic. Now, an increasing number of cities are suspending recycling services, partly out of fear that workers might contract the coronavirus from one another while sorting through used water bottles, food containers and boxes. One solution: Let robots do the job. Since the coronavirus took hold in the United States last month, AMP Robotics has seen a “significant” increase in orders for its robots that use artificial intelligence to sift through recycled material, weeding out trash. (Corkery and Gelles, 4/10)

The New York Times: ‘How Do I Get Help?’ Dying Coronavirus Patient Asked Alexa
They lived about 20 minutes apart in Michigan, but when a cousin gave the sisters Lou Ann Dagen and Penny Dagen each an Amazon Echo Show last year to make video calls, they would keep each other company for hours on end. The virtual assistant Alexa connected them during meals and discussions about what was on television. “I think she just wanted to know that I was there,” Penny Dagen, 74, said of her sister, who lived in a nursing home. (Vigdor, 4/9)

Mass INC Polling Group: Telemedicine Use Has Nearly Tripled Among Mass. Residents, Poll Shows 
As Massachusetts approaches a projected surge of COVID-19 cases, residents remain keenly aware of a widespread shortage of tests and protective medical gear. But as the health care system seizes under the weight of coronavirus, one sector of it is growing by leaps and bounds: telemedicine. A rapidly growing share of residents are "seeing" their doctors over the phone or computer, according to data from the latest MassINC/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts coronavirus tracking poll. (Duggan, 4/9)

WBUR: Psychiatrists Lean Hard On Teletherapy To Reach Isolated Patients In Emotional Pain
Psychiatrist Philip Muskin is quarantined at home in New York City because he's been feeling a little under the weather and doesn't want to expose anyone to whatever he has. But he continues to see his patients the only way he can: over the phone. (Noguchi, 4/9)

KQED: Security Concerns Prompt Berkeley Unified To Suspend Use Of Zoom For Classes 
Around the country, fear over organized “Zoombombing” campaigns have prompted school leaders to drop Zoom, while others have switched to alternative platforms. School meeting disruptions and reports of racist and pornographic imagery being shown to young children led the FBI to warn schools about using Zoom, and law enforcement agencies have said they'll take on Zoombombers. (Rancaño, 4/9)

Reuters: Pass The Salt: The Minute Details That Helped Germany Build Virus Defences
One January lunchtime in a car parts company, a worker turned to a colleague and asked to borrow the salt. As well as the saltshaker, in that instant, they shared the new coronavirus, scientists have since concluded. That their exchange was documented at all is the result of intense scrutiny, part of a rare success story in the global fight against the virus. The co-workers were early links in what was to be the first documented chain of multiple human-to-human transmissions outside Asia of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Poltz and Carrel, 4/9)

The New York Times: Iceland’s Coronavirus Test Has Skeptics, But It May Be Working
With its small population and isolated location, Iceland has earned praise and headlines for its plan to test as many people as possible for exposure to the new coronavirus. Why, some wondered, couldn’t other countries be like Iceland? But critics inside the country have called this rosy picture misleading. They say the tiny Nordic island country of 360,000 people has not done enough to suppress new cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (Ortiz, 4/9)

Reuters: UK PM Johnson Leaves Intensive Care, Remains Under Observation
Prime Minister Boris Johnson left intensive care on Thursday evening as he continues to recover from COVID-19, but he remains under close observation in hospital, his office said on Thursday. (Bruce and James, 4/9)

The Associated Press: Virus-Hit Wuhan Cautiously Revives Amid Thicket Of Controls
Released from their apartments after a 2 1/2-month quarantine, residents of the city where the coronavirus pandemic began are cautiously returning to shopping and strolling in the streets. But they say they still go out little and keep their children home while waiting for schools to reopen. Wuhan’s 11 million people still face a thicket of controls after curbs that kept most of them from leaving the sprawling city ended this week. (McNeil and McDonald, 4/10)

Reuters: China's Wuhan To Keep Testing Residents As Coronavirus Lockdown Eases
China’s Wuhan city, where the global coronavirus pandemic began, is still testing residents regularly despite relaxing its tough two-month lockdown, with the country wary of a rebound in cases even as it sets its sights on normalising the economy. (Goh, 4/10)

The New York Times: A New Front For Nationalism: The Global Battle Against A Virus
As they battle a pandemic that has no regard for borders, the leaders of many of the world’s largest economies are in the thrall of unabashedly nationalist principles, undermining collective efforts to tame the novel coronavirus. The United States, an unrivaled scientific power, is led by a president who openly scoffs at international cooperation while pursuing a global trade war. India, which produces staggering amounts of drugs, is ruled by a Hindu nationalist who has ratcheted up confrontation with neighbors. China, a dominant source of protective gear and medicines, is bent on a mission to restore its former imperial glory. (Goodman, Thomas, Wee and Gettleman, 4/10)

Undark: Sidelined By Scandal, A Top Disease Modeler Watches And Worries
Georgia evening in January, Eva Lee, director of the Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Health Care at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was finishing up a paper about the global spread of avian flu and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. It was late and her husband was asleep next to her in the bedroom of their bungalow in a quiet Atlanta neighborhood. On a whim, she says, she had recently added the novel coronavirus to her analysis, and it changed everything.The 55-year-old mathematician was already widely regarded for her large-scale computational algorithms and models for tackling outbreaks and natural disasters. (Neimark, 4/9)

The Atlantic: The Two States Where Trump’s COVID-19 Response Could Backfire In 2020
A handful of swing states will almost certainly decide the winner of November’s presidential election. And in two of them, Michigan and Florida, Donald Trump’s complicated relationship with their governors could expose him to greater political risk as the economic and social price of the coronavirus pandemic mounts. Trump faces mirror-image threats. Michigan voters could interpret Trump’s animosity toward Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer as punishing the state. By contrast, in Florida, Trump’s liability could be his close relationship with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, which is seen by many as one reason DeSantis was slow to impose a statewide stay-at-home order. (Bronstein, 4/9)

Politico: Trump Broke The Agencies That Were Supposed To Stop The Covid-19 Epidemic
This week, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams promised that we’re entering the darkest days of the Covid-19 epidemic: “This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. Only, it’s not going to be localized, it’s going to be happening all over the country. And I want America to understand that,” Adams told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. Adams’ metaphor, evoking the two deadliest—and most shocking—moments of modern American history, came on the fourth consecutive day that U.S. deaths from Covid-19 crossed the 1,000 mark. Across Saturday, Sunday and Monday, more Americans were killed by the novel coronavirus than in either Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks or the Civil War battle of Antietam. The days ahead surely will include an even grimmer toll. (Graff, 4/7)

The New York Times Magazine: The Life And Death Shift
We photographed the medical workers on the front lines in northern Italy. These are their stories. (4/7)

The Wall Street Journal: All The President’s Ratings
Our Thursday editorial offering some friendly advice on how to make the daily White House coronavirus briefings more informative for the American people seems to have caught President’s Trump attention. The President took to his favorite communication venue to tweet: “The Wall Street Journal always ‘forgets’ to mention that the ratings for the White House Press Briefings are ‘through the roof’ (Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, according to @nytimes) & is only way for me to escape the Fake News & get my views across. WSJ is Fake News!” Thanks for reading, sir, and we agree the briefings are an excellent way to communicate directly with Americans. Our point was about the way Mr. Trump is communicating about a subject that is literally a life and death matter. That’s the reason they’re a ratings hit, not because people enjoy Donald Trump sparring with the White House press corps like a Packers-Bears game. (4/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Might Want To Get A Head Start On Packing His Bags 
There is only one logical reason President Trump is so desperately trying to cast doubt on the outcome of an election that’s still seven months away: He knows he is likely to lose.To use a football analogy, it’s not even halftime and Trump is already throwing Hail Marys. In recent days, he has used his coronavirus updates to rail against mail-in voting, which will probably be the way more Americans cast their ballots in November than ever before. “Mail ballots, they cheat,” he claimed Tuesday. Fact check: They don’t. From Trump’s point of view, something that must look like a worst-case scenario is coming into focus. (Eugene Robinson, 4/9)

CNN: Trump's Planned Economic Revival May Be Blunted By Lack Of Coronavirus Testing 
President Donald Trump says America does not need and will never have mass coronavirus testing, despite warnings by experts that a comprehensive program is vital to getting life back to normal. The inadequacy of testing for the virus has been a constant deficiency of the government's handling of the pandemic from the start. (Stephen Collinson, 4/10)

Bloomberg: California Declares Independence From Trump's Coronavirus Plans 
California this week declared its independence from the federal government’s feeble efforts to fight Covid-19 — and perhaps from a bit more. The consequences for the fight against the pandemic are almost certainly positive. The implications for the brewing civil war between Trumpism and America’s budding 21st-century majority, embodied by California’s multiracial liberal electorate, are less clear.Speaking on MSNBC, Governor Gavin Newsom said that he would use the bulk purchasing power of California “as a nation-state” to acquire the hospital supplies that the federal government has failed to provide. If all goes according to plan, Newsom said, California might even “export some of those supplies to states in need.”“Nation-state.” “Export.” (Francis Wilkinson, 4/9)

Los Angeles Times: With Coronavirus Pandemic, States Are On Their Own
For months, the White House has been sending an implicit but unmistakable message to state governors: When it comes to handling the coronavirus pandemic, you’re pretty much on your own. “We’re not a shipping clerk,” President Trump grumbled to reporters last month as an explanation of why he has ignored pleas from states for help obtaining ventilators, N95 masks and crucial medical equipment. (4/9)

Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Could Unleash A Political Apocalypse In November
The Supreme Court’s intervention in the Wisconsin election this week — last-minute, avoidable and slapdash — was disquieting, not least as a sign of the court’s potential role in the upcoming presidential election. The unsigned opinion on behalf of the five-justice conservative majority evoked future dangers, but it also harked back to the past, specifically to the infamous opinion in Bush vs. Gore, which wrestled the 2000 presidential election to the ground. (Harry Litman, 4/9)

Bloomberg: Hong Kong Wage Subsidies Point Way For Coronavirus Relief
Hong Kong led the world in adopting helicopter money. Now the city’s long-term wage subsidies have again put it at the forefront of global efforts to blunt the impact of the coronavirus. Other economies should pay attention. The government said this week that it will fund 50% of affected workers’ salaries for six months, capped at the equivalent of $1,160 a month. With the exception of Australia, most countries have offered shorter-term relief. Hong Kong’s spending package reflects recognition that the economy will need support for longer than initially thought. (Nisha Gopalan, 4/9)

The New York Times: Coronavirus’s Biggest Lesson: America Needs A Public Health System For All
A once-in-a-century public health crisis is unfolding, and the richest country in the world is struggling to mount an effective response. Hospitals don’t have enough gowns or masks to protect doctors and nurses, nor enough intensive care beds to treat the surge of patients. Laboratories don’t have the equipment to diagnose cases quickly or in bulk, and state and local health departments across the country don’t have the manpower to track the disease’s spread. Perhaps worst of all, urgent messages about the importance of social distancing and the need for temporary shutdowns have been muddied by politics. (Jeneen Interlandi, 4/9)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Proves Need For National Practitioner Licensing System
It’s clear in this unprecedented health crisis that the healthcare delivery system is not really a system at all and one of the glaring issues is that of licensure to practice. There are medical professionals who are sitting on the sidelines when their expertise and clinical skills could be put to work. Our objective in writing this column is to point out the difficulties facing physicians who would like to contribute but cannot because of the antiquated guild system of state medical licensure. It needs to be replaced with one similar to that of the Federal Aviation Administration for pilots—universal and focused on standard skills and safety. (Katherine A. Schneider and Mary P. Davis, 4/9)

The Washington Post: Three Cheers For Big Pharma As It Rushes To Develop A Vaccine 
Doctors warn us that we can’t feel truly safe against the novel coronavirus until an effective vaccine is developed. Fortunately, there’s good news on that front. Both in the United States and elsewhere, many vaccines are already either being tested on humans or will be soon. Two clinical trials are in process in the United States. One underway in Seattle uses two doses injected into the bloodstream while a second, being performed in Kansas City and Philadelphia, merely pricks the skin and is followed by a small electric shock to help the chemicals penetrate deeper into the body. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine are applying to the Food and Drug Administration to put a third potential vaccine into clinical trials soon. Scientists in Israel might be moving even faster. (Henry Olsen, 4/9)

Stat: Searching For An Effective Covid-19 Treatment: Promise And Peril
In response to the most serious global health threat in a century, the world’s biomedical establishment is unleashing an unprecedented response to the Covid-19 pandemic, rapidly increasing resources aimed at finding safe and effective treatments for the disease. But without careful attention to the pitfalls that can befall biomedical research and regulatory decision-making during a time of crisis, a lot can go wrong. (G. Caleb Alexander, Aaron S. Kesselheim and Thomas J. Moore, 4/10)

The Washington Post: America’s 2.3 Million Prisoners Are Sitting Ducks For This Virus. Here’s How To Save Them. 
Washington, D.C., is an emerging hot spot for the novel coronavirus, but its jail is already a five-alarm conflagration, with an exploding number of inmates who have either tested positive for the disease or are suspected of having it. On a more cataclysmic scale, the infection rate among inmates in New York City’s main jail complex on Rikers Island is nearly seven times higher than in the rest of the city, which is ground zero for the nation’s covid-19 pandemic.Some 2.3 million people are behind bars in U.S. jails and prisons, and many of them are sitting ducks for a virus that thrives in cramped quarters and in confined spaces where standards of hygiene, and often even the availability of soap and other cleaning products, are notoriously poor. (4/9)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: To Protect Missourians, Release Missouri Prisoners
We are in the midst of an unprecedented, worldwide health crisis. Schools and businesses have shuttered, professional sporting events have been postponed, and as of Tuesday, at least 316 million people in at least 42 states have been urged to stay home — all in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Elected officials recognize that strong, swift action is necessary to flatten the infection-rate curve and save lives. These actions must address prisons and jails. Public health experts agree that decarceration is critical to slowing the spread of this coronavirus. (Amy E. Breihan and Tricia J. Bushnell, 4/9)

NBC News: Coronavirus Deaths In The U.S. Reveal A Startling Truth About America's 'Two Pandemics'
Every day, we are inundated with information about the horrors of the coronavirus pandemic. We hear about the rising number of deaths, the increasing rate of infections, the mental anguish, the shortages of critical supplies in hospitals, the people struggling to pay bills and survive, the long lines at food banks and so much more. But lost in the coverage of this virus is one critical point that we simply cannot ignore: the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and disenfranchised communities. (The Rev. Al Sharpton, 4/10)

The Hill: Poor State Reporting Hampers Pandemic Fight 
Short of a cure or vaccine, our most powerful weapon against the COVID-19 pandemic is the information: The right data can tell us the severity of the problems we face and whether social distancing is working. Despite considerable handwringing by public officials about what we don’t know about this disease, state health departments already have most or all of the relevant data. Unfortunately, they don’t make it available in ways that provide a clear picture of what’s happening. (Dr. Steven Goodman and Dr. Nigam Shah, 4/9)

NBC News: America's Coronavirus Response Must Center Women. And The Black Plague Helps Show How.
When a major crisis threatens to destabilize the economy and society, there are two choices: We can respond by trying to keep old systems in place, or we can rethink them, innovate and create a better path to prosperity. Attitudes and practices related to women are going to have a major impact on how we fare during the coronavirus pandemic, and full recovery seems unlikely until the challenges they face are placed front and center. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the weakness of outdated social norms and poor policy choices in the United States that have, among other things, placed painful burdens on women — ranging from unworkable family roles and a meager social safety net to insufficient labor protections and intrusions on autonomy. (Lynn Stuart Parramore, 4/9)

The Washington Post: The One Thing About Giving Birth During The Covid-19 Pandemic That I Didn’t Anticipate
My husband and I arrived at the hospital last Friday for my labor induction. Just two years ago, I gave birth in the same facility. But this time everything was different.As an emergency physician, I’m trained to think in terms of worst-case scenarios. As an expectant mother, I had nightmares about all the things that can go wrong in pregnancy. But there was one thing about giving birth during the covid-19 pandemic that I didn’t anticipate: how I would become scared of, and also scared for, my health-care providers. (Leana S. Wen, 4/9)

Stat: The Challenges Of Giving Birth In The Time Of Covid-19 
There are about 300,000 births every month in the United States. That won’t change as Covid-19 continues its march across the country. Health systems are doing the best they can under immensely difficult circumstances to treat very sick patients, stem the spread of the virus, and keep those on the front lines healthy... As is always the case, the weaknesses in our strained health care infrastructure are disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable people, and that includes pregnant women. (Laurie Zephyrin, 4/10)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Proved Bernie Sanders Right. But Only Partly 
One piece of conventional wisdom circulating in the wake of Bernie Sanders’ withdrawal from the Democratic presidential primary is that the COVID-19 pandemic proves he was right about healthcare.In truth, it proves him half right. The pandemic is causing millions of people to lose their jobs and their health insurance just when they are most in need of coverage. If this country had universal insurance coverage, as the vast majority of the civilized world does, that wouldn’t be happening, and the federal government wouldn’t be maneuvering to send billions of dollars in emergency aid to hospitals and state health programs. (John Healey, 4/8)

Chicago Sun Times: Mount Sinai Hospital Staff Battles Coronavirus And Their Own Anxiety, Too
Many struggle with COVID-19 without ever being infected. Think of how worrisome this epidemic is to rational folks sheltering in comfort at home. Now, consider the mentally ill, the disturbed patients treated at a place like Mount Sinai Hospital — the psychotic and bi-polar, schizophrenic and depressed. Like your world, their worlds, too, are turned upside down, though they often have far less ability to cope with events that even the most stable person can have trouble processing. “We are seeing more patients experiencing more ill effects of emotional distress,” said Dr. Paul Berkowitz, chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral health at Sinai. (Neil Steinberg, 4/9)