The New York Times: Trump Says States Can Start Reopening While Acknowledging The Decision Is Theirs
President Trump told the nation’s governors on Thursday that they could begin reopening businesses, restaurants and other elements of daily life by May 1 or earlier if they wanted to, but abandoned his threat to use what he had claimed was his absolute authority to impose his will on them. On a day when the nation’s death toll from the coronavirus increased by more than 2,000 for a total over 30,000, the president released a set of nonbinding guidelines that envisioned a slow return to work and school over weeks or months. (Baker and Shear, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Guidelines For Reopening States Amid Coronavirus Pandemic Will Leave Decisions To Governors
“I think you’re going to have some nice surprises over the next few days,” [Trump] said. “And I think it’ll be much faster than people think.”Earlier Thursday, Trump explained the parameters to governors on a conference call, assuring them, “You’re going to call your own shots,” according to a recording of the call obtained by The Washington Post. But he emphasized that the federal government will be involved to support the states in the process. (Dawsey, Kim, Sonmez and Itkowitz, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Trump Gives Governors 3-Phase Plan To Reopen Economy
The new guidelines are aimed at easing restrictions in areas with low transmission of the coronavirus, while holding the line in harder-hit locations. They make clear that the return to normalcy will be a far longer process than Trump initially envisioned, with federal officials warning that some social distancing measures may need to remain in place through the end of the year to prevent a new outbreak. And they largely reinforce plans already in the works by governors, who have primary responsibility for public health in their states. (Miller, Suderman and Freking, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Guidelines To Reopen Economy Put Onus On Governors
In the second phase, nonessential travel could resume and bars could open with some restrictions. Schools and youth activities could reopen. Vulnerable individuals would still be told to stay home and visits to nursing homes and hospitals would still be barred. Telework would continue to be encouraged. For phase three, there would be no restrictions on workplaces and vulnerable people could resume social interactions, but should seek to follow social distancing. Visits to hospitals and nursing homes could resume, and bars could increase their standing-room capacity. (Restuccia and Lucey, 4/16)

Reuters: Trump Unveils Three-Stage Process For States To End Coronavirus Shutdown
The recommendations call on states to show a “downward trajectory” of COVID-19 cases or positive tests for the disease over 14 days before proceeding with the plan, which gradually loosens restrictions on businesses that have been shuttered to blunt the spread of the virus. “We are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time,” Trump told reporters at the White House. The president had said earlier this month he wanted to reopen the economy with a “big bang.” (Mason and Holland, 4/16)

The Associated Press: A Look At New Guidance To States On The Coronavirus
The guidance affects certain employers differently. For example, schools and organized youth activities that are currently closed, such as daycare, should remain closed. The guidance also says that bars should remain closed. However, larger venues such as movie theaters, churches, ballparks and arenas can operate but under strict distancing protocols. If possible, employers should have workers return to the job in phases. Also under phase one, vulnerable individuals such as elderly people and those with underlying health conditions should continue to shelter in place. (Freking, 4/17)

Politico: Trump Tosses Coronavirus Shutdowns Back To The States
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who laid out a reopening framework this week but has been markedly more aggressive than the federal government in curtailing social activity, said Trump offered an “encouraging” message of allowing states to manage their own changes. The president “recognizes the differentiation that exists and persists in counties, and not just states,” Newsom said, and offered to preserve “the kind of specificity at a state-to-state level” that can be tailored to the varying scope of outbreaks. (Orr, White and Cook, 4/16)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Coronavirus, California Plans How To Reopen Businesses
Local governments are beginning to map out how they could ease some of the coronavirus stay-at-home orders, with officials saying the process could gradually begin in May and continue in targeted ways through the summer and fall. The exact timeline is based on several factors, including a significant drop in coronavirus cases as well as fewer hospitalizations and the ability to do extensive testing. (Lin, 4/16)

Stat: Trump Outlines 'Phases' To Reopen States Once Coronavirus Cases Decline
President Trump on Thursday told governors that they could begin to ease stay-at-home orders, allow business to open, and begin the process of restarting economies brought to a standstill as local governments race to slow the spread of Covid-19. The guidelines would apply only to states where coronavirus cases have been on a downward trajectory for 14 days, and where health providers have the capacity to treat all coronavirus patients, said Deborah Birx, the physician and diplomat who has helped to coordinate the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. (Facher, 4/16)

Stat: Influential Covid-19 Model Uses Flawed Methods And Shouldn’t Guide U.S. Policies, Critics Say
A widely followed model for projecting Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. is producing results that have been bouncing up and down like an unpredictable fever, and now epidemiologists are criticizing it as flawed and misleading for both the public and policy makers. In particular, they warn against relying on it as the basis for government decision-making, including on “re-opening America.” (Begley, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Read: Guidelines For Opening Up America.
Read the text of President Donald Trump's new guidelines. (4/16)

CNN: Fact Check: Trump Wrongly Declares Some States Don't Have 'Any Problem' With Coronavirus 
President Donald Trump inaccurately declared at Thursday's White House coronavirus briefing that some states do not have "any problem" with the virus's outbreak, minimizing the situation even in the least-affected states. Trump also repeated his incorrect suggestion that he has the power to decide when governors lift their pandemic-related restrictions. And he argued that "people should have told us" about the virus, omitting the fact that he continued to downplay the virus for weeks after public warnings. (Dale and Subramaniam, 4/17)

Politico: How Trump Can Skirt Transparency Rules As He Talks To Business Leaders
The White House is skirting a key transparency law in its rushed effort to tap industry leaders for advice on reopening the country — and it’s not the first time. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the initiative with much fanfare, rattling off the names of more than 200 business leaders that he said would be part of the “Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups.” He then dove into the outreach campaign Wednesday, holding four conference calls with different segments of the massive group and compiling thoughts on how to restart the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Gerstein, 4/17)

Politico: White House Taps Members Of Congress To Advise On Reopening Economy
President Donald Trump is tapping yet another group to advise him on when to re-open the economy: members of Congress. The Trump administration is inviting a bipartisan crew of lawmakers to participate in a task force to address the central question of when the country should return to normal amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Levine, Ferris and Zonona, 4/16)

The New York Times: Tracking Trump’s Promises On Responding To The Virus
Coronavirus testing will be available in commercial parking lots and can be found through a few clicks on a website. Millions of masks and “more ventilators than we need” will be delivered imminently. Monitoring capabilities for the next phase of the pandemic are on the way. President Trump has made many promises about responding to the coronavirus crisis. But in the month since he declared a national emergency and as he encourages steps toward reopening the economy, many of them remain unfulfilled or works in progress. (Qiu, 4/16)

Politico: Bill Gates Hikes Coronavirus Contribution After Bashing Trump For Defunding WHO
The private foundation belonging to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife announced a contribution of an additional $150 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic Wednesday — hours after the billionaire philanthropist was briefly drawn into partisan sniping over President Donald Trump’s actions during the public health crisis. (Forgey, 4/16)

The Hill: Top Republicans Call On Trump To Fund WHO Pending Director-General's Resignation 
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee applauded President Trump’s decision Thursday to suspend funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on the administration to make the United States’s voluntary contributions to the health body contingent on the resignation of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In a letter sent to Trump on Thursday, Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Mike McCaul (R-Texas) and 16 members of the panel raised concerns over the WHO and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) initial response to the coronavirus outbreak. (Brufke, 4/16)

The Hill: Michael Cohen To Be Released Early From Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic: Report 
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is being released from prison early amid fears of coronavirus, according to Cohen's lawyer and others familiar with the matter, CNN reported Thursday evening. Cohen, once a staunch ally and surrogate for the president leading up to the 2016 presidential election, is serving three years in a New York federal prison after he was convicted last year of alleged financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. (Moreno, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Top Infectious Disease Doctor Inspires 'Fauci Fever'
A new condition related to the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the United States: Fauci fever. After decades of renown in American medicine, Dr. Anthony Fauci has become an unlikely celebrity in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he has led the medical response to COVID-19 and tried to inform an anxious nation. (Reeves, 4/16)

The Hill: Fauci: Diseases Like Coronavirus 'Don't Just Disappear' 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Thursday evening that diseases like the novel coronavirus “don’t just disappear.” Fauci was asked during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham if COVID-19 could "disappear" like SARS did in 2004. (Moreno, 4/16) 

The New York Times: Nancy Pelosi, Live From Her Kitchen, Works To Counter Trump's Coronavirus Show 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t bother watching President Trump’s lengthy daily televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t watch his shows,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t have time to watch him contradict himself from one day to the next.” Still Ms. Pelosi, who is now deprived of the official trappings of the Capitol with Congress in an extended virus-instigated recess, is trying to counter the president’s White House sessions with her own media blitz from her kitchen in San Francisco. (Stolberg, 4/16)

Politico: Trump Defends Drop In Commercial Lab Testing Amid Push To Reopen U.S.
President Donald Trump defended a sharp drop in commercial laboratory coronavirus testing as a positive development Thursday despite public health experts’ warnings that the U.S. needs millions of additional tests each week to safely reopen the country. “In recent days we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of tests performed by hospitals and academic institutions,” Trump said. “Some of the media falsely reported this as a bad thing when in fact it's a great thing because it indicates that the states are moving to faster, more local testing solutions including on the spot tests.” (Lim, 4/16)

NPR: Next Generation Of COVID-19 Virus Tests Could Get Faster And Cheaper With CRISPR
Being able to test for coronavirus infections is a critical component to reopening society — even a little bit — after the initial wave of COVID-19. So there is an urgent need for faster, cheaper tests than the ones available at present. One approach to the next generation of tests is being developed by the University of California, San Francisco Medical School and Mammoth Biosciences. In a paper released Thursday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, researchers describe a test based on a new technology known as CRISPR. (Palca, 4/17)

ABC News: Crucial Coronavirus Antibody Tests Destined For New York City Caught In Red Tape In China 
The first 100,000 coronavirus antibody tests authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and headed to New York City could have been deployed days ago, but they’ve been stuck in red-tape limbo in China, officials with the U.S. government and with the antibody test company told ABC News. “I’ve been working in government for 15 years almost, at this point, so bureaucratic stuff is never that surprising,” said New York City Councilman Stephen Levin, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the city's General Welfare Committee. “I see it as a hurdle to overcome.” (Abdelmalek and Margolin, 4/17)

NBC News: Unapproved Chinese Coronavirus Antibody Tests Being Used In At Least 2 States
Officials across the country are racing to provide coronavirus tests to diagnose infections and to identify recovered patients with antibodies that may help others battle COVID-19, the disease it causes. But some COVID-19 antibody tests, including those being used by public health departments in Denver and Los Angeles and provided to urgent care centers in Maryland and North Carolina, were supplied by Chinese manufacturers that are not approved by China's Center for Medical Device Evaluation, a unit of the National Medical Product Administration, or NMPA, the country's equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, NBC News has found. (Morgenson, 4/16)

CNN: Airline Passengers Undergo Covid-19 Blood Tests Before Boarding
Perhaps a sign of what the future holds for air travelers, Dubai-based airline Emirates has begun carrying out Covid-19 blood tests on passengers at the airport prior to flights. According to a statement released by the airline, the first rapid Covid-19 blood tests took place on Wednesday at Dubai International Airport, with passengers on a flight to Tunisia all reportedly tested before departure. The tests were conducted by the Dubai Health Authority at the Group Check-in area of Terminal 3 and results were available within 10 minutes. (Cripps, 4/16)

ABC News: FEMA Faces Multi-Front Battle On COVID-19 As Hurricane Season Nears 
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, in charge of the federal response to novel coronavirus, is now orchestrating one of the most complex response efforts in its history while also staring down a new upcoming season of wildfires and hurricanes. The unprecedented undertaking raises serious questions about whether FEMA can meet both challenges and protect Americans vulnerable to disaster. (Vann, 4/16)

ABC News: Disaster Relief Groups Forced To Adapt During Coronavirus Pandemic
It's the beginning of tornado and flood season in the United States, and as disaster relief organizations are deployed, they're adapting and following new protocols to protect staff, volunteers and the victims of these natural disasters from the additional threat of COVID-19. Before destructive storms ripped across a wide swath of the South earlier this week, the American Red Cross was getting ready, preparing to provide shelter and prepping its staff and volunteers on the latest protocols. (Deliso, 4/17)

ProPublica: Congress Is Investigating Whether A Ventilator Company Is Gouging The U.S. — And Why The Government Is Letting It Happen
A congressional subcommittee is investigating whether the U.S. government is paying too much for ventilators made by a Dutch company that received millions in tax dollars to develop an affordable one for pandemics, but is now charging quadruple the price under a new deal. “This all seems very fishy to me,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who chairs the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy. The subcommittee falls under the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. (Callahan and Rotella, 4/16)

Kaiser Health News: As Ventilators Become Crucial In Saving Lives, Repair Roadblocks Remain
For years, manufacturers of ventilators and other medical equipment have kept a tight grip on the ability of hospitals to service and repair those products, prompting lawsuits and under-the-table sharing of repair manuals and software passwords. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for product information to keep ventilators up and running is at an all-time high. (Hawryluk, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: China’s Export Restrictions Strand Medical Goods U.S. Needs To Fight Coronavirus, State Department Says
New Chinese export restrictions have left American companies’ U.S.-bound face masks, test kits and other medical equipment urgently needed to fight the coronavirus stranded, according to businesses and U.S. diplomatic memos. Large quantities of critical protective gear and other medical goods are sitting in warehouses across China unable to receive necessary official clearances, said some suppliers and brokers. (O'Keeffe, Lin and Xiao, 4/16)

The Associated Press: 7 Midwest States To Partner On Reopening The Economy
Seven Midwestern governors announced Thursday that they will coordinate on reopening their state economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, after similar pacts were made in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The latest agreement includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky. (Eggert, 4/16)

CNN: 7 Midwestern Governors Announce Their States Will Coordinate On Reopening
The announcement came in a news release from Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, sent on behalf of all the participating governors. "Our number one priority when analyzing when best to reopen our economy is the health and safety of our citizens," the governors said in a joint statement. "We will make decisions based on facts, science, and recommendations from experts in health care, business, labor, and education," the statement added. (Sgueglia and Kelly, 4/16)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer To Work With Midwest Governors On Reopening Economy
Similar regional approaches are under way among governors in the western U.S. and in the Northeast. Since residents can cross freely between state borders, a regional approach helps avoid situations in which one state, for example, has closed greenhouses, but its residents can travel to a neighboring state where they are open to purchase the same items. Whitmer, Evers, Walz, Pritzker and Beshear are Democrats. DeWine and Holcomb are Republicans. (Egan and Spangler, 4/16)

Stateline: Echoing Trump, More GOP State Legislators Call For Easing Closures
Ohio state Rep. J. Todd Smith, a Republican, thinks it’s about time to get his state back to work. It’s not that he’s overly displeased with what Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow member of the GOP, has done thus far to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It’s just that his constituents are telling him it’s time to ease up. And he says dire predictions of thousands of deaths in Ohio have not proven to be true. (Povich, 4/15)

The Hill: Two-Thirds Of Americans Worry States Will Lift Restrictions On Public Activity Too Quickly: Poll 
About two-thirds of Americans worry that state governments will lift their restrictions on public activity too quickly following the coronavirus outbreak, according to a poll released Thursday. Pew Research Center’s poll found 66 percent of respondents were concerned states will reopen public activity too quickly, compared to 32 percent who are more concerned they won’t reopen quickly enough. (Coleman, 4/16)

Politico: Coronavirus Fatigue Bubbles Over As Lockdowns Enter Second Month
Signs of unrest are emerging across the country as Americans grow tired of social distancing measures that have prevented innumerable deaths but disrupted their everyday lives and cost millions their jobs. Demonstrators have held protests in a half-dozen states this week, with more to come. A suspect broke into a small business in Washington, D.C., where passersby looted more than $2,000 worth of wine. And several major cities have seen spikes in calls to suicide hotlines as public health officials warn of the toll the coronavirus pandemic can take on mental health. (McCaskill, 4/16)

The Hill: Whitmer Says Protestors' 'Irresponsible Actions' Can Lead To Extension Of Stay-At-Home Orders 
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Thursday night said the protests that took place in her state Wednesday demanding an end to her "stay-at-home" order could result in an extension of social distancing measures like it. Whitmer, during an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, said that the protests are the “kind of irresponsible action that puts us in this situation where we might have to actually think about extending stay-at-home orders, which is supposedly what they are protesting." (Moreno, 4/16)

CNN: The Social-Distancing Deniers Have Arrived 
Patience is in ever-shorter supply. No one is happy with the current situation. But some Americans see the yoke of oppression in public health efforts to keep people home, and they're growing louder. Underneath the general frustration and dazed acceptance of so much of the world changing its lifestyle for the time being lurks a growing defiance of the science that tells us how to deal with Covid-19 and the government that is telling everyone (to varying degrees) to stay indoors. (Wolf, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: How Will We Reopen The Economy?
President Donald Trump wants to reopen the country soon. But public health experts from across the ideological spectrum insist that won’t be safe until the country can dramatically ramp up testing and contact tracing stemming from those infected. Meanwhile, the political sparring among the president and members of Congress and the nation’s governors is not helping Americans understand what they should do in this grave public health crisis. (4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Reported U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Reach Record 4,591 In 24 Hours
The number of reported deaths in the U.S. from the new coronavirus spiked to nearly double the prior record Thursday, as governors extended their lockdown orders, and the Trump administration released new federal guidelines to reopen the economy. In the 24 hours ending at 8 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, 4,591 people were reported to have died from Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. The prior record was 2,569 on Wednesday. The number of new reported U.S. cases, meanwhile, was roughly equal with that on Wednesday at 31,451. (Calfas, Purnell and Dalton, 4/17)

ABC News: Coronavirus Updates: Nearly 5,000 New US Deaths Reported, COVID-19 Death Toll Now Above 33,000 
More than 2.1 million people have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus worldwide as the spread of the virus continues. The global coronavirus death toll stands at more than 145,000 people, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to a number of deaths in which a person is not tested for the virus. (Mansell, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Amid Talk Of Restarting Economy, Virus Keeps Killing In NYC
Hopeful talk about getting people out of their homes and back to work in some parts of the country seems a far cry from the harsh reality in New York and its suburbs: Thousands of people infected with the coronavirus are still streaming into hospitals every day. Hundreds are still dying. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted the lack of major improvement Thursday as he announced another 606 deaths in the state and said current social isolation rules will stay in place through at least May 15. The number dying was down from a day earlier, but remains alarmingly high. (Caruso, Hill and Sisak, 4/16)

CNN: US Coronavirus: New York And Other Hot Spots Getting Longer Peaks 
New York and other hot spots are experiencing prolonged peaks of the coronavirus pandemic while southern states may not get hit as hard as earlier projected, experts say. Researchers from the prominent projection model cited by the White House plan to release new data on the pandemic Friday. (Karimi, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: 55 New Coronavirus Deaths In L.A. County A Record High
Coronavirus-linked fatalities hit another one-day high in Los Angeles County on Thursday as health officials confirmed 55 additional deaths. The latest update — marking the third straight day the county has seen a record number of deaths — brought the county’s total to 455 and demonstrates “the devastating power of COVID-19,” Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer said. The county’s mortality rate now stands at 4.2%, she added. (Lin, Greene and Money, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Study Suggests California Has 10 Times More Coronavirus Cases Than Reported. Local Experts Disagree 
A new study estimates that as many as 270,000 Californians are infected with the coronavirus, more than 10 times the number reported, and that New York is much worse off than even the most pessimistic disease trackers believe. The 61-page report appears to bolster the long-held belief by medical specialists that there is a huge population of untested virus carriers who could be infecting others, but Bay Area epidemiologists are skeptical that the infection rate could be as high as the authors predict. (Fimrite, 4/15)

Houston Chronicle: Health Officials Say Houston-Area's COVID-19 Curve Is Beginning To Flatten 
After weeks of grim, ever-worsening statistics, Houston medical and public health leaders say the area has begun to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the rate at which the disease is spreading through the community. The start of such flattening, seen in testing and hospitalization data, represents the turning of a significant corner for an area that has been shut down for more than a month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. The virus has infected more than 2 million people globally and killed more than 33,000 in the U.S. (Ackerman, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: Henry Ford Doctors See 'Plateau' In Patient Surge As COVID-19 Deaths In Michigan Top 2,000
Michigan's coronavirus death toll topped 2,000 on Thursday, a milestone that also brought more signs that infections are flattening as Henry Ford Health System officials reported a "plateau" in COVID-19 patients. State health officials reported 172 new deaths in a 24-hour period that ended at 10 a.m. Thursday, the second most COVID-19 deaths reported in one day since the pandemic hit Michigan five weeks ago. (Livengood, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Mass-Grave Burials On Hart Island In New York Rise Fivefold
Desolate Hart Island, a mile-long stretch of dirt off the Bronx, has taken New York City's unclaimed dead for 151 years: Civil War soldiers, stillborn babies, the homeless and AIDS patients, who were confined to the island's southernmost tip for fear that their little-understood virus might spread from their corpses. During the coronavirus pandemic, the mass-grave burials of indigent New Yorkers whose families could not be found or who could not afford a private funeral have quintupled, officials said, growing from an average of 25 per week to 120. (Yuan, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Which Deaths Count Toward The Covid-19 Death Toll? It Depends On The State.
In Alabama, officials have ruled that one of every 10 people who died with covid-19 did not die of covid-19. Among those excluded from the numbers reported to the federal government were a bedbound patient with aspiration pneumonia in one lung and a person with a buildup of fluid and partial collapse of one lung. Colorado, by contrast, has included some deaths where the disease caused by the novel coronavirus was deemed probable — based on symptoms and possible exposure — but not confirmed through a test. (Brown, Reinhard and Thebault, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Counting Coronavirus Cases: Why It’s Harder Than It Might Seem
Some of the most frequently cited figures these days are the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths. The results have influenced decisions to lock down economies and will play a role in plans to ease the restrictions. But counting these things is hard. First, you have to decide what to include. Second, you have to apply the criteria uniformly. And third, you must assemble the results without error. (McGinty, 4/17)

ABC News: 'Massive Blindspot': Missing Data In COVID Pandemic Leaves US Vulnerable 
President Donald Trump is eyeing May 1 to reopen the country. Governors on both coasts -- some of the hardest-hit areas thus far -- are also discussing plans to get the economy rolling again. But the big question is when and how to do so safely. While discussions about flattening the curve, passing the peak and plateauing have generated some optimism, public health professionals fear that a key factor in understanding the novel coronavirus pandemic has been forgotten: the missing data. (Torres, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Becoming America's Leading Cause Of Death
In just weeks, covid-19 deaths have snowballed from a few isolated cases to thousands across the country each day. The U.S. surgeon general had warned that last week would be like Pearl Harbor as he attempted to create context for the threat — but it turned out that more than five times as many Americans died from covid-19 last week than were killed in the World War II raid. (Keating and Esteban, 4/16)

The New York Times: Why Epidemiologists Still Don’t Know The Death Rate For Covid-19 
Coroners in some parts of the country are overwhelmed. Funeral homes in coronavirus hot spots can barely keep up. Newspaper obituary pages in hard-hit areas go on and on. Covid-19 is on track to kill far more people in the United States this year than the seasonal flu. But determining just how deadly the new coronavirus will be is a key question facing epidemiologists, who expect resurgent waves of infection that could last into 2022. As the virus spread across the world in late February and March, the projection circulated by infectious disease experts of how many infected people would die seemed plenty dire: around 1 percent, or 10 times the rate of a typical flu. (Harmon, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: ‘It’s Not Over Until It’s Over’: 5 Things To Know About Hitting The COVID-19 Peak
As New York, California and other states begin to see their numbers of new COVID-19 cases level off or even slip, it might appear as if we’re nearing the end of the pandemic. President Donald Trump and some governors have pointed to the slowdown as an indication that the day has come for reopening the country. “Our experts say the curve has flattened and the peak in new cases is behind us,” Trump said Thursday in announcing the administration’s guidance to states about how to begin easing social distancing measures and stay-at home orders. (Galewitz, 4/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Order Allows CSU To Relax Admission Requirements For 2021 
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday allowing the California State University system to adjust admissions criteria for applicants affected by the coronavirus crisis. The order waives certain requirements for changing the CSU admissions criteria through June 2021 and would impact students applying later this year to enroll as freshmen in fall 2021. (Kawahara, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Several Bay Area Counties Will Require Face Masks Starting Next Week To Fight Coronavirus, Official Says 
Bay Area counties will announce a new order on Friday that will require residents to wear masks and face coverings while in public, Marin County’s health officer said Thursday in a video statement. The new requirement will go into effect at noon on Wednesday to give time to the public to prepare, Dr. Matt Willis, the health officer, said in a YouTube video. Willis did not say which of the Bay Area counties were joining to put out the order. (Hernandez, 4/16)

The Washington Post: D.C., Virginia And Maryland Coronavirus Cases Double In A Week To Exceed 20,000
The coronavirus caseload in Virginia, Maryland and the District has doubled in a week to more than 20,000 confirmed patients as of Thursday evening. The death toll reached 750 and continues to climb, as the economic standstill implemented to stem the virus’s spread wrought a new round of financial pain and worry. (Cox, Wiggins and Olivo, 4/16)

ABC News: Coronavirus Outbreak Sickens At Least 37 Children At Chicago Shelter For Undocumented Immigrant Youth 
A coronavirus outbreak has sickened at least 37 children at a Chicago shelter for unaccompanied and undocumented immigrant youth, and officials there said Thursday that they've been scrambling to test all the children in their care and to isolate those who are positive for the virus. The outbreak occurred at a shelter in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, where 69 children separated from their parents or guardians at the Southern border are housed, officials said. (Hutchinson, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Baker Defends State Coronavirus Efforts In Chelsea
Governor Charlie Baker on Thursday staunchly defended the state’s handling of the escalating COVID-19 outbreak in Chelsea, including charging, without offering details, that city leaders have turned down help from his administration. The governor’s claim blindsided officials in Chelsea, where leaders told the Globe this week that the state and even health care providers should have caught on sooner to the virus’s rapid spread through the densely populated, working-class community. (Stout, 4/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Milwaukee: These Stores Have Reserved Shopping Hours
In an effort to make shopping safer and easier, some stores are reserving early morning hours for at-risk customers. Stores are using reserved times to disinfect and restock shelves for shoppers who can benefit from it the most.Here’s a list of when and where seniors, people with disabilities and immunocompromised individuals can shop. (Morales, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Another Push Emerges To Allow Remote Notarization For Era Of Social Distancing 
Various constituencies representing the interests of probate attorneys, real estate lawyers, bankers, insurers, and credit unions have teamed up on a proposed solution: a bill that would allow notaries to endorse documents via videoconference. This loose-knit coalition, including the retirement plan giant Fidelity Investments, proposed legislation to the House and Senate on Thursday. (Chesto, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Judge Rules Baker Had Legal Right To Close Recreational Marijuana Stores 
Governor Charlie Baker acted within his authority when he ordered recreational marijuana suppliers and stores to close amid the coronavirus pandemic, a state judge ruled Thursday afternoon — even as he said he believed they could be reopened safely. The decision means the state’s recreational pot shops will remain shuttered. It also could serve as an effective death sentence for dozens of marijuana companies, several of which sued Baker last week for deeming the recreational the shutdown after he deemed recreational marijuana suppliers and stores “nonessential." (Adams, 4/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Wisconsin: Sheriff Threatened Jail Over Instagram Post
A high school sophomore sued the Marquette County sheriff Thursday after he threatened to take her or her family to jail for her post on Instagram warning that she believed she had been infected with coronavirus. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Milwaukee with the help of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, argues the jail threat violated the teen’s right to free speech. The case raises questions about First Amendment protections in the middle of a pandemic. (Marley, 4/16)

Detroit Free Press: Poor, Homeless In Michigan At Risk Of Missing Out On Stimulus
As much as the stimulus cash — officially known as the Economic Impact Payment — looks like easy money, the process isn't simple for many, including homeless and poor people and those without bank accounts. And there's growing concern that some people will lose out on seeing any money. One big issue continues to bubble up: How will poor people get their stimulus cash? About 1.5 million people in Michigan could be at risk of not getting a payment or could need to wait as long as five months to receive the money via a check sent in the mail, according to H. Luke Shaefer, director of Poverty Solutions and the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy at the University of Michigan. (Tompor, 4/16)

KQED: Even Garbage Is Under Threat From The Coronavirus' Impact On The Economy
They come once a week to haul away your trash, scoop up your recyclables and in many locations, pick up your compost. But as the coronavirus pandemic and statewide shelter-in-place orders have shut down businesses and caused millions of layoffs, garbage collectors are worried about their ability to keep the trucks rolling. (Lam, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: In Texas A Battle Brews Over Voting By Mail Amid Coronavirus
Republicans and Democrats in Texas are locking horns over coronavirus-related efforts to expand voting by mail, with Republicans arguing it can fuel voter fraud and Democrats warning that disallowing it could harm turnout and sway results. The Texas Democratic Party has filed two lawsuits against state election officials and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to extend the state’s limited mail-in eligibility. A state district judge Wednesday afternoon said he would grant Democrats an injunction to allow Texans to vote by mail; state Republicans are expected to appeal. (Findell, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Could Complicate Trump's Path To Reelection
The coronavirus is poised to reshape the political map, pummeling battleground states and alarming Republicans who see early signs of an election that could be a referendum on President Donald Trump’s management of the crisis. The pandemic, which has killed more than 30,000 Americans and left millions out of work, has eviscerated Trump’s hope to run for reelection on a strong economy. A series of states he won in 2016 could tilt toward Democrats. (Lemire, Riccardi and Beaumont, 4/17)

CNN: DNC's Milwaukee Host Committee Halves Its Staff With Convention In Doubt
The Democratic National Convention's host committee in Milwaukee has cut its staff by more than half as the coronavirus pandemic has raised questions about whether and how the political parties' conventions can be held this summer. The Milwaukee 2020 Host Committee, which recruits volunteers, raises money and organizes venues for convention activities, reduced its staff from 31 members to 14, a party official said Thursday. (Bradner, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Older Americans Get Chance To Join Virus Vaccine Study
A U.S. study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine is being expanded to include older adults, the age group most at risk from the new coronavirus. The shot, made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., is being tested in healthy young and middle-aged adults in Seattle and Atlanta. Moderna announced Thursday the study is expanding to include older adults, divided into two age groups -- 51 to 70 and those over 70. (4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Moderna Gets U.S. Funding For Development, Manufacturing Of Experimental Coronavirus Vaccine
Moderna Inc. said Thursday it reached an agreement to receive as much as $483 million in funding from a federal agency to accelerate the development and production of its closely watched experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus. The federal funding will cover advancing the vaccine through a series of studies to potential approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Loftus, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Federal Government Pledges Up To $483M To Speed Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine 
Moderna’s chief executive, Stephane Bancel, said Thursday that the money from the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, will enable the company to supply “millions of doses per month in 2020 and with further investments ― tens of millions per month in 2021 ― if the vaccine candidate is successful in the clinic." That timeline seems more optimistic than those Moderna previously gave for the experimental vaccine. The company said on March 23 that it might seek federal emergency approval of it for some people ― including health care workers ― in the fall, but said the vaccine wouldn’t be commercially available for at least 12 to 18 months. Other vaccine developers gave a similar timeline for their experimental products, all of which would need federal regulatory approval.(Saltzman, 4/16)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Ready For Production By Autumn
A coronavirus vaccine trial by the University of Oxford aims to have administered the shot to 500 volunteers by mid-May, Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at the university, told the Lancet. Adults aged 18 to 55 years are being recruited initially in the early- and mid-stage randomized, controlled trial. It will be later extended to older people before an expected phase-3 expansion involving 5,000 volunteers, Gilbert told the medical journal. “The best-case scenario is that by the autumn of 2020, we have an efficacy result from phase 3 and the ability to manufacture large amounts of the vaccine, but these best-case time frames are highly ambitious and subject to change,” Gilbert was quoted as saying. (Gale, 4/17)

Refinery29: She Tested A Coronavirus Vaccine A Month Ago. Here's What The Last 4 Weeks Have Been Like.
As soon as it became clear how quickly coronavirus was spreading across the world, and how deadly it was, the race for the vaccine was on. As of now, there are as many as 115 vaccine programs in the works, reports the journal Science Translational Medicine. One of the first in the world to be tested on humans was created by Moderna, Inc, a biotech company in Massachusetts. One month ago, that vaccine was given to the first set of human subjects as part of a safety trial. (Zaman, 4/19)

Reuters: Report Says COVID-19 Patients Respond To Gilead's Remdesivir, Shares Surge
Gilead Sciences Inc’s shares surged 16% in after hours trading on Thursday following a media report detailing encouraging partial data from trials of the U.S. company’s experimental drug remdesivir in severe COVID-19 patients. (4/16)

Stat: Gilead Data Suggests Coronavirus Patients Are Responding To Treatment
Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in lab tests. The entire world has been waiting for results from Gilead’s clinical trials, and positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease. The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir. (Feuerstein and Herper, 4/16)

CNN: Report: Covid-19 Patients Recovering Quickly After Getting Experimental Drug Remdesivir
However, the trial does not include what's known as a control group, so it will be difficult to say whether the drug is truly helping patients recover better. With a control arm, some patients do not receive the drug being tested so that doctors can determine whether it's the drug that is really affecting their condition. Trials of the drug are ongoing at dozens of other clinical centers, as well. Gilead is sponsoring tests of the drug in 2,400 patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms in 152 trial sites around the world. It's also testing the drug in 1,600 patients with moderate symptoms at 169 hospitals and clinics around the world. (Fox, 4/17)

Reuters: Exclusive: FDA May Have Dropped Standards Too Far In Hunt For Chloroquine To Fight Coronavirus - Sources
On March 21, two days after President Donald Trump first touted chloroquine drugs as a “gamechanger” in the fight against COVID-19, administration officials privately described what they felt was a “win” in the president’s efforts to build an emergency stockpile of the drugs: a hefty donation of pills from Bayer AG. (Eban, 4/16)

NBC News: Family Of New York Woman Blames Hydroxychloroquine Combo For Fatal Heart Attack
A New York woman with coronavirus symptoms died last week after being prescribed a drug cocktail with known cardiac side effects, and family members say she was not tested for COVID-19 or for heart problems before receiving the medication. The family’s experience suggests that at least some physicians are prescribing hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin — drugs President Donald Trump has promoted to treat the coronavirus — outside of hospital settings, underscoring why major medical organizations including the American Heart Association have issued warnings about the drug’s potential to trigger heart arrhythmia in some patients. (Przybyla, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Despite Trump’s Boosterism, There Is No Silver Bullet In The Pipeline Against Covid-19
The journey of EIDD-2801, from laboratory to the mouth of a human, unfolded with head-snapping speed. On March 23, a division of Emory University in Atlanta licensed the experimental drug to a Miami company owned by a wealthy hedge-fund manager and his wife. Just three weeks later, a pill was given to a person for the first time in a test of its safety, in Britain. (Rowland, 4/16)

The Hill: STD Antibiotic Faces Shortages After Trump Promotes It As Coronavirus Treatment 
A commonly prescribed antibiotic used to treat sexually transmitted infections and other conditions is facing a shortage after President Trump promoted it as a potential coronavirus treatment. Demand for azithromycin tablets — better known by its brand name Z-Pack — is soaring as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the U.S. (Hellmann, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Some People Turn To Herbal Medicine For Virus Without Proof
With no approved drugs for the new coronavirus, some people are turning to alternative medicines, often with governments promoting them. This is most evident in India and China, densely populated countries with a deep history and tradition of touting such treatments, and where there’s sometimes limited access to conventional medicine. (Ghosal and Wang, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: With Federal Nod, Consumers Could Lose The Boost They Get From Drug ‘Coupons’
Patients who get financial help from drug companies to cover their copayments for prescription drugs could owe a bigger chunk of their costs under a proposed federal rule. The annual rule, which sets a wide range of standards regarding benefits and payments for most health plans for next year, would allow employers and insurers to decide that drug companies’ assistance doesn’t count toward their members’ deductible or out-of-pocket maximum spending limits. (Andrews, 4/16)

CNN: Cost Of Protective Equipment Rises Amid Competition And Surge In Demand
The cost of personal protective equipment is skyrocketing -- more than 1,000% in some cases -- as the coronavirus pandemic continues. The federal government's Strategic National Stockpile has nearly emptied and states have been left to find PPE supplies on their own. The surge in demand has left importers, suppliers and purchasers scrambling. And price gouging has exacerbated the problem. (Diaz, Sands and Alesci, 4/16)

Boston Globe: ‘It’s The Wild, Wild, Wild West’ — Rhode Island Health Care Agencies In Fight For COVID-19 Gear 
Desperate owners of nursing homes are maxing out their credit cards to buy supplies, but they find promises of delivery aren’t always kept, and prices for suppliers are much higher than normal. Surgical masks that normally cost 18 cents are now over a buck, and N95 masks that used to sell for 85 cents "are quoted up to 7 dollars,” Fraser said. (Milkovits, 4/17)

CNN: FEMA Union Urges Trump To Use Wartime-Era Law For More Protective Equipment
The union representing Federal Emergency Management Agency employees is joining growing calls for the Trump administration to utilize the full authorities provided by the Defense Production Act to shore up more protective equipment to fight Covid-19, according to a letter obtained by CNN. The wartime-era law, which gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production, has been a point of contention between states and the Trump administration. While President Donald Trump has invoked the law in some instances during the coronavirus pandemic, the shortage of critically needed supplies has fueled calls to use the law in its full capacity. (Alvarez, 4/16)

The New York Times: Disposable N95 Masks Can Be Decontaminated, Researchers Confirm
Researchers have confirmed that there are several effective methods for decontaminating the N95 masks worn by health professionals so that they can be used more than once, the National Institutes of Health announced Wednesday. A substantial body of research already showed that the masks, designed for one-time use, can be reused in a crisis. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March authorized reuse because of shortages driven by the Covid-19 pandemic. (Gorman, 4/16)

WBUR: NIH Scientists Say N95 Masks Can Be Cleaned At Least 3 Times — But The FDA Is Allowing Up To 20
Scientists from the National Institutes of Health who started investigating the coronavirus back in January have weighed in on the safety of cleaning and reusing the coveted N95 medical masks. In a study released this week, researchers found that it’s safe to clean and reuse the highly sought-after N95 respirator masks at least three times. But that raises questions about whether a new plan to decontaminate masks as many as 20 times at Boston hospitals is safe for medical workers depending on them amid the coronavirus equipment shortage. (Healy, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: House Democrats Call For Answers On VA’s Mask Supplies
A group of House Democrats sent the White House a letter Thursday calling for greater transparency from the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding supplies of protective equipment at VA facilities during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the letter, which was made public. Rep. Mark Takano (D., Calif.), the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, wrote to Vice President Mike Pence and the head of the Office of Management and Budget requesting the timely release of information about how the VA is managing its supplies of things like N95 masks, alleging that the White House is holding up release of the data, according to the letter. (Kesling, 4/16)

ABC News: Federal Investigation Launched As Veterans Affairs Lifts Restrictions On Masks For Health Workers 
Federal officials have launched an investigation into allegations that the Department of Veterans Affairs is putting its health care workers in danger as they continue to work on the front lines fighting the novel coronavirus, according to a Department of Labor letter obtained by ABC News. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation comes in response to a VA union complaint last week that medical workers who were exposed to infected patients did not receive coronavirus testing and lacked sufficient protective equipment, including N95 respirators, eye protection, face masks and gowns. (Owen, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Inova Bans Workers Treating Covid-19 Patients From Wearing Their Own PPE
Inova, which operates Northern Virginia’s largest hospital, has prohibited employees treating covid-19 patients from wearing N95 respirator masks that they bring from home, despite national shortages of the protective equipment and workers’ concerns about contracting the virus. In a statement, an Inova spokeswoman said the health-care system’s procedures ensure only “hospital-grade, quality-assured products” are available to workers and that it cannot guarantee that personal protection equipment obtained elsewhere will prevent exposure. (Portnoy, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Shoes To Masks: Corporate Innovation Flourishes In Coronavirus Fight
True Value Co. heard from its more than 4,500 affiliated hardware stores last month that hand sanitizer was flying off the shelves, leaving store staff with none for themselves. At the company’s factory in Cary, Ill., which makes cleaning products and paint, John Vanderpool, the company’s divisional vice president of paint, recalled asking, “What can we do to help here?” After a tip from his wife, a pharmacist, he consulted with the Food and Drug Administration, then huddled with his maintenance team and engineers over two weekends to retool two paint-filling lines to produce jugs of FDA-approved hand sanitizer. (Ip, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Schools And Colleges Offer Protective Equipment To Health Providers
At a time of urgent need for equipment to protect health care workers and first responders from COVID-19, area schools and colleges are stepping up to offer their help. Framingham State University donated more than $8,000 worth of medical gloves, masks, alcohol swabs, disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer, isolation gowns, and other supplies to the MetroWest Medical Center. (Laidler, 4/16)

Politico: Snubs, Feuds And Phone Tag: Inside Congress' Coronavirus Breakdown
For Congress, the coronavirus pandemic changed everything — except the personality feuds that have defined the institution in the Trump era. Instead of congressional leaders and President Donald Trump rallying to take on a virus that’s crushing the economy and killing tens of thousands of Americans, the opposite has happened. The partisan sniping and long simmering squabbles among the White House and “Big Four” — Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — are more prominent than ever. (Caygle, Everett and Zanona, 4/17)

The Associated Press: New Pressure On Lawmakers As Virus Aid For Firms Hits Limit
Lawmakers are struggling to break a stalemate over President Donald Trump’s $250 billion emergency request for a small-business program, stoking uncertainty about when additional support will be available in a key rescue program now exhausted of funds. A Senate session quickly adjourned without any progress, though staff aides to House and Senate Democrats and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin convened another conference call, on legislation to shore up the Paycheck Protection Program and demands by Democrats for potential additions. (Taylor, 4/17)

The New York Times: Loan Money Runs Out While Small-Business Owners Wait In Line
The $349 billion government program meant to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic and economic meltdown ran out of money on Thursday — even as many small-business owners were desperately trying to apply for loans. Now they are trying to figure out how to keep their businesses alive while Congress negotiates the possible release of additional rescue funds. The program, administered by the Small Business Administration through participating banks, was marred by technical glitches from the start, even as overwhelming demand and confusion about how it would all work slowed down the approval process. (Flitter, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Funding Exhausted For $350 Billion Small-Business Paycheck Protection Program
Lawmakers again fell short of an agreement on the next round of coronavirus emergency aid Thursday, as a $350 billion loan program for small businesses ran out of money and millions more Americans filed for employment benefits, bringing fresh urgency to the negotiations. Republicans want to approve $250 billion more for the small-business loans, meant to support worker paychecks, before moving on to other aid and stimulus proposals. Democrats want to make changes to the small-business program and include money for hospitals, state and local governments, and food assistance to recipients alongside it. (Duehren, 4/16)

The Associated Press: As $2 Trillion Starts To Flow, Oversight Of Virus Cash Lags
Congress unleashed $2 trillion to deal with the coronavirus crisis. So far, only one person is working to oversee how it is spent. Bharat Ramamurti is starting out as a watchdog of one, the sole appointee to a five-member Congressional Oversight Commission. Sheltering at home with preschoolers, Ramamurti has been writing letters and taking to Twitter to try and jump-start his work, asking the Trump administration for “detailed and timely information” about coronavirus payments. But he’s eager for reinforcements. (Jalonick and Daly, 4/17)

The Wall Street Journal: When The Stimulus Check In Your Bank Account Isn’t What You Expected 
The U.S. government sent more than 80 million direct-deposited stimulus payments this week, and the amounts popping up in bank accounts are coming as a surprise to some Americans. Some are finding less than they expected. Others think they are getting too much. Some say money is going into bank accounts they don’t recognize. And still others are struggling to decipher error messages from an Internal Revenue Service website. (Rubin, 4/16)

Politico: Economic Rescue Package To Boost Deficit By $1.8T, CBO Predicts
The colossal economic rescue package passed by Congress last month amid the pandemic will increase federal deficits by $1.8 trillion over a decade, although the overall bill provides more than $2 trillion in assistance, the Congressional Budget office estimated Thursday. The independent budget agency noted that some of the aid is in form of loan guarantees, which won’t have a net effect on the federal budget. The package includes a $988 billion increase in mandatory spending and a $326 billion increase in emergency discretionary spending. It decreases revenues by $446 billion. (Emma, 4/16)

The New York Times: House Democrats Back Changing Rules To Allow Remote Voting During Pandemic
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday threw her support behind a plan to allow House members to cast votes by proxy, conceding for the first time that the coronavirus pandemic that has forced Congress into an extended recess would require historic modifications to how the institution has operated for centuries. The announcement was a stark shift for Ms. Pelosi, who as recently as last week dismissed the idea of remote voting, which would require a change to House rules. (Stolberg, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Hospital Relief Money Slow To Reach Places That Need It Most, Lawmakers And Industry Groups Say
The $100 billion Congress allocated for hospitals and health-care providers in its $2 trillion coronavirus rescue bill has been slow to go out and has shortchanged some of the places that need it most, lawmakers and industry groups say. They also say the total sum is woefully inadequate to address the needs created by the virus, which has overwhelmed big-city hospitals even as some providers have experienced a precipitous loss in revenue from elective procedures that has forced them to lay people off in the middle of a raging pandemic. (Werner, Harris and Goldstein, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Industry In Tug-Of-War Over Coronavirus Aid
Now, hospitals and doctors in hot spots say they should be the primary beneficiaries of the remaining $70 billion. “Quite simply, funding should follow the Covid-19 patients,” Kenneth Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group for New York hospitals, said in a letter to members this week. But elsewhere, health-care providers say their need is also dire as revenue evaporates. “Rural health care was in a state of crisis before this pandemic,” said Dr. Susan Turney, chief executive of the Marshfield Clinic Health System in Marshfield, Wis. “With everything we’re facing right now, we really need to have funding that will stabilize our health system, so we can continue to survive.” (Evans and Armour, 4/16)

Roll Call: Second Round Of Emergency Medical Provider Funds Delayed
A second wave of emergency funds that Congress directed to medical providers appears to be delayed, after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the House Appropriations Committee the distributions could take another week and a half to calculate. Azar’s projection follows Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma’s remarks to reporters Wednesday that the second batch would be distributed this week. Verma declined to share specifics on what formula the department is using to divvy up the funds. (Clason, 4/16)

Kaiser Health News: The COVID-19 Bailout That’s Left Every Hospital Unhappy In Its Own Way
In the throes of the novel coronavirus outbreak in early April, Kenneth Raske, president of the powerful Greater New York Hospital Association, took his case for needing billions in federal relief funding to another New Yorker, well placed in the White House. The April 8 call with Jared Kushner lasted “probably 30 seconds.” After all, Raske said, the facts speak for themselves. (Pradhan and Weber, 4/16)

The New York Times: A Tiny Hospital Struggles To Treat A Burst Of Coronavirus Patients
Dr. Desmond Wah is used to being the only physician tending to patients during his shifts at Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville, Ind., population 6,500, where at least half of the 25 beds are usually empty. But he was hardly prepared for the weeklong shift he started on March 20, when the two counties Batesville straddles became one of rural America’s worst coronavirus hot spots. By the end of the week, most of the hospital’s beds were filled with patients who had either tested positive for or were suspected of having the virus. Six were on ventilators, two of which had been lent hastily by a local emergency medical services unit. (Goodnough, 4/16)

In other news on hospitals —

NBC News: Coronavirus In A Psychiatric Hospital: 'It's The Worst Of All Worlds'
It's not unusual to hear patients screaming and crying at Western State Hospital, workers say. But lately, they say it's been worse than normal at the massive psychiatric facility just south of Tacoma, Washington. (Ramgopal, 4/17)

Modern Healthcare: Two New Field Hospitals For Chicago
To increase healthcare capacity, new field hospital units are being set up in suburbs outside of Chicago.One will be outside Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan while the other will be adjacent to the University of Chicago Medicine's Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey. The goal is to improve patient management and flow at hospitals treating underserved and at-risk patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, International Medical Corps, a nonprofit that provides relief during disasters, announced Thursday. (Goldberg, 4/16)

Detroit Free Press: TCF Field Hospital Has Capacity For 1,000 Patients, But Only 17 Admitted
As the number of coronavirus patients appears to be reaching a plateau, the Detroit field hospital built to accommodate an overflow of sick people has become a refuge for a very specific patient. “Long-term care facilities, group homes and skilled nursing facilities are not taking patients back until they get a negative result,” said Dr. Jenny Atas, the chief medical officer at TCF Center. “And it sometimes takes a while to get a negative result.”So the 17 patients at the TCF Regional Care Center, the former Cobo Convention Center, include mostly seniors and some homeless people who aren't allowed to return to a shelter program without a negative test. (Gray, 4/16)

WBUR: MIT Converts Ice Rink To Coronavirus Care Center
Cambridge now has another 75 beds to care for COVID-19 patients, with the opening of a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology dedicated health center. The Sean Collier Care Center, named for an MIT police officer who was killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, will care for patients who have tested positive for the virus but do not require intensive care. The building, located on the school's campus, normally houses the Johnson Ice Rink. (Ruckstuhl, 4/16)

WBUR: 137 Patients, 100 Staff Test Positive In COVID-19 Outbreaks At Two State-Run Hospitals
Significant outbreaks of COVID-19 are now emerging in state-run hospitals in Massachusetts. The facilities care for hundreds of patients, many with chronic physical and behavioral health conditions.State officials said the largest outbreaks are among patients at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain and Tewksbury State Hospital. As of Thursday, 75 patients and 60 staff had tested positive at Tewksbury State Hospital, which has 394 patient beds. At Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, 62 patients and 40 staff had tested positive. Shattuck has 255 beds. (Becker, 4/16)

KQED: Thousands Of Bay Area Patients Wait For Surgery As Hospitals Hold Beds For Coronavirus Surge 
When COVID-19 started rapidly spreading, hospitals throughout the country canceled elective surgeries to free up hospital beds and conserve protective equipment like masks and gowns. Surgery departments canceled everything from cosmetic procedures like tummy tucks and gastric bypasses to brain surgeries and organ transplants. In the Bay Area, all in-person care is delayed for all but the most worrisome cases. (McClurg, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: Beaumont Hospital Wayne Closes Temporarily As COVID-19 Patient Census Drops
Beaumont Hospital Wayne has temporarily ceased operations as the Southfield-based health system has redeployed most employees and staff to other Beaumont facilities as the numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has declined, Crain's has learned. Used the past several weeks essentially as a COVID-19 intensive care unit, Beaumont Hospital Wayne and the entire eight-hospital nonprofit system has experienced a large drop in revenue and patient volume. In a statement late Wednesday, Beaumont said the Wayne hospital is not permanently closing. (Greene, 4/16)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Crisis Underlines Weak Spots In U.S. Economic System
An indelible image from the Great Depression features a well-dressed family seated with their dog in a comfy car, smiling down from an oversize billboard on weary souls standing in line at a relief agency. “World’s highest standard of living,” the billboard boasts, followed by a tagline: “There’s no way like the American Way.” The economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly hurled the country back to that dislocating moment captured in 1937 by the photographer Margaret Bourke-White. In the updated 2020 version, lines of cars stretch for miles to pick up groceries from a food pantry; jobless workers spend days trying to file for unemployment benefits; renters and homeowners plead with landlords and mortgage bankers for extensions; and outside hospitals, ill patients line up overnight to wait for virus testing. (Cohen, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Layoffs And Pay Cuts Are Now Striking More White Collar Jobs
First, it was bars, restaurants, hotels. And clothing stores, movie theaters, entertainment venues. And countless small businesses, from bookstores to barber shops. Now, the record-setting flood of layoffs unleashed by the viral outbreak is extending beyond the services industries that bore the initial brunt and are still suffering most. White collar employees, ranging from software programmers and legal assistants to sales associates and some health care workers, are absorbing layoffs or salary cuts. So are workers in other occupations, like construction and real estate. (Rugaber, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Layoff Alternative Grows In Popularity During Coronavirus
A state-run program that helps businesses cut costs while retaining staff is becoming an increasingly common strategy to fight the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic. State labor departments are seeing a swift increase in employer applications for programs known as workshares that allow companies to reduce worker hours and employees to collect prorated unemployment benefits to help offset lost wages, avoiding full layoffs. (Chaney, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Roughly A Quarter Of Michigan’s Workforce Is Seeking Unemployment Benefits
Charles Johnson was only supposed to be stuck home for about a week. His manufacturing plant, which makes aluminum parts for Ford pickup trucks, shut its doors in March, like many others in Michigan, to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus. A week lapsed into a month, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) closed most businesses statewide. Out of a job for the foreseeable future, and running out of cash, the 46-year-old Johnson joined the ranks of more than 1 million Michigan workers seeking help in a state that’s faced immense economic hardship amid a deadly pandemic. (Romm, 4/16)

NBC News: Coronavirus Unemployment Numbers Are Staggering. And The Real Number Is Higher.
Like just about every freelance writer I know, my income has become a lot more precarious in the last few weeks as coronavirus precautions have shut down the economy... But I was glad to hear that the government had opened up unemployment benefits to the self-employed as part of the CARES stimulus package. So I logged on to the Illinois website to figure out what to do if the worst happened and I ran out of work. I clicked once, clicked twice, and came to a page with clear instructions. "This portion of the benefits expansion package has not yet been implemented." (Berlatsky, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Bleak Figures From China And US Show Economic Hit From Virus
Bleak figures from the world’s two largest economies underscore how quickly the coronavirus is delivering a massive economic blow. China on Friday reported GDP shrank 6.8% from a year ago in the quarter ending March, its worst contraction since before market-style economic reforms began in 1979. And in the U.S., the world’s largest economy, the ranks of the unemployed swelled toward levels last seen during the Great Depression. (Perry and McDonald, 4/17)

Reuters: 'Makeshift Morgue' At New Jersey Nursing Home Sparks Broader Coronavirus Probe
New Jersey’s governor on Thursday ordered a probe into long-term care facilities after a “makeshift morgue” was found at a nursing home devastated by the novel coronavirus, raising questions about the death toll at homes for the elderly. (Layne and Resnick-Ault, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: New Jersey Nursing Home Under Investigation After Coronavirus Deaths
Authorities in New Jersey are investigating the state’s largest nursing home site after dozens of residents died, many from the coronavirus. More than a dozen of the deceased residents were being kept in a small holding room in the facility before they were removed with the assistance of law-enforcement officials Monday, said Chaim Scheinbaum, chief executive at Alliance Healthcare, which owns the facility. Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday he was “outraged the bodies of the dead were allowed to pile up in a makeshift morgue at the facility.” (De Avila and Kamp, 4/16)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Nursing Home Deaths: 29, Or More, Dead At One Facility 
Berna Lee got the call from the nursing home in Queens on April 3: Her mother had a fever, nothing serious. She was assured that there were no cases of coronavirus in the home. Then she started calling workers there. “One said, ‘Girl, let me tell you, it’s crazy here,’” Ms. Lee said. “‘Six people died today.’” In a panic, Ms. Lee drove from her home in Rhode Island to the nursing home, beginning a two-week scramble for information, as workers at the facility, Sapphire Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing of Central Queens, told her privately that many residents had died, and that most of the home’s leadership was out sick or in quarantine. (Leland, Harris and Tully, 4/16)

Boston Globe: Critics Say State Needs To Repeatedly Test All Nursing Home Staff And Residents 
With nearly half of coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts occurring at long-term-care facilities, state officials are now offering to provide testing for residents and staff at any nursing home, assisted living facility or rest home, seeking to curb a contagion that preys upon the frail and elderly. Because the illness can be transmitted by people who are not showing symptoms, the state said this type of universal testing is crucial so the facilities can isolate the infectious and identify the full scope of the outbreak. (Murphy, Crimaldi and Weisman, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 To Boost State And Federal Probes Of Long-Term Care
Skilled-nursing facilities and other long-term care providers will likely face greater scrutiny from state and federal investigators as they struggle to manage COVID-19 cases, legal experts said. Prior to the pandemic, regulators have systematically bolstered enforcement activity targeting long-term care facilities, which have struggled to contain the virus that's infecting many of their chronically ill patients who live in close quarters. This has resulted in thousands of deaths, which experts warn are likely significantly underreported, and a lack of transparency has hindered containment efforts. (Kacik, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Takes Severe Toll On Community Doctors In Queens
Victor Peralta is a pediatrician, but in reality he cares for entire families. Working-class, Spanish-speaking immigrants pour into his small office beneath New York City’s No. 7 subway line—parents, grandparents, young brothers and sisters.In recent weeks, Dr. Peralta says, the new coronavirus that has torn through his patients’ multigenerational households has also infected his staff—three employees recovered at home, but a medical assistant ended up in critical condition at nearby Elmhurst Hospital. They had kept the Jackson Heights, Queens, office open even after much of the city shut down in mid-March. (O'Brien and West, 4/17)

The New York Times: How A Respiratory Therapist, Working ‘Code To Code,’ Spends His Sundays
Before the coronavirus, respiratory therapists mostly worked in the shadows. But now what they do — help people breathe — has thrust them into the spotlight. “Breathing is the most important life function,” said David Van De Carr, a respiratory therapist at Mount Sinai Morningside, in Manhattan. “This disease is very much focused on that.” (Howard, 4/17)

The Washington Post: Health Care Workers Stay At Hotels And Clean Meticulously To Avoid Infecting Their Families With Coronavirus
After long shifts treating covid-19 patients in New York hospitals, emergency room doctor Calvin D. Sun goes home and works for another 45 minutes. He cleans. He peels off his shoes, scrubs his jacket and places his protective suit outdoors to bake in the sun. Finally, he takes a shower, hot and scouring, to eliminate any microbes that could cling to his body like invisible thorns. This new homework is as stressful as it is tedious. (Guarino, 4/16)

Kaiser Health News: California Shies Away From Calls To Eliminate Restrictions On Nurse Practitioners
As the demand for health care workers surges with the coronavirus case count, many states are rushing to lift restrictions on nurse practitioners, who provide much of the same care as doctors do. But California allows nurse practitioners to work only under the supervision of a doctor, and most limitations on their practice are likely to hold. (Bluth, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: NYC Nurse Says He’s Not Scared: ‘I Am Only Doing My Job’ For COVID-19 Patients
Before the deadly coronavirus hit New York, Francisco Díaz’s job as a gerontological nurse practitioner was educating seniors on managing their diabetes. Now, he’s at the heart of the pandemic, working in a New York City emergency room. (Andalo, 4/17)

Houston Chronicle: Doctors Treating COVID-19 At Houston Methodist Get Inside Giant Plexiglass Boxes
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is transmitted by coughing, sneezing or simply speaking, releasing infected droplets into the air. And since seriously ill COVID-19 patients often require ventilators, Masud, director of the Critical Care Center at Houston Methodist, wanted to protect his colleagues during this intubation procedure. So he helped create a clear plexiglass box that covers the patient’s head and shoulders. (Leinfelder, 4/16)

WBUR: After Recovering From COVID-19, Some Detroit Health Care Workers Are Back On The Job
When Jones' test came back positive as well, he joined a growing club: health care workers in the metro Detroit area who have contracted COVID-19. Nobody knows how many, exactly, because some health systems aren't sharing or collecting that data. But more than 2,600 health care workers in the area either have been out sick with symptoms similar to those of COVID-19 or have tested positive for the coronavirus. (Wells, 4/17)

The New York Times: Obesity Linked To Severe Coronavirus Disease, Especially For Younger Patients
Obesity may be one of the most important predictors of severe coronavirus illness, new studies say. It’s an alarming finding for the United States, which has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Though people with obesity frequently have other medical problems, the new studies point to the condition in and of itself as the most significant risk factor, after only older age, for being hospitalized with Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Young adults with obesity appear to be at particular risk, studies show. (Rabin, 4/16)

The New York Times: Asthma Is Absent Among Top Covid-19 Risk Factors, Early Data Shows
For people with asthma, the outbreak of a pandemic that can lead to respiratory failure has not been a welcome event. Many health organizations have cautioned that asthmatics are most likely at higher risk for severe illness if they get the coronavirus. There’s been a run on inhalers, and coronavirus patients like the actor Idris Elba have openly worried about their asthma. But this month, when New York State, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, began releasing data on the top 10 chronic health problems suffered by people who died from coronavirus, asthma was notably absent from the list. (Hakim, 4/16)

Reuters: Coronavirus Clue? Most Cases Aboard U.S. Aircraft Carrier Are Symptom-Free
Sweeping testing of the entire crew of the coronavirus-stricken U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt may have revealed a clue about the pandemic: The majority of the positive cases so far are among sailors who are asymptomatic, officials say. The possibility that the coronavirus spreads in a mostly stealthy mode among a population of largely young, healthy people showing no symptoms could have major implications for U.S. policy-makers, who are considering how and when to reopen the economy. (Stewart and Ali, 4/16)

The Hill: Scientists Learning About Coronavirus At Unprecedented Speed 
Just months after Chinese officials identified a small cluster of unexplained pneumonia cases in the city of Wuhan, scientists around the globe have broken down the coronavirus at unprecedented speed in an effort to save lives and stop its spread. The first global pandemic of the social media age and the first major outbreak of the internet era has created an explosion of learning. At the same time, studies published on a seemingly daily basis are raising just as many new questions as they’re answering about the deadly virus. (Wilson, 4/16)

CIDRAP: Researchers Report 21% COVID-19 Co-Infection Rate
A research letter published yesterday in JAMA found that rates of COVID-19 co-infections with other respiratory pathogens are 21%, higher than previously thought, suggesting that identification of another pathogen may not rule out the presence of the novel coronavirus. Also, a letter yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine detailing survey results on 272 primary care physicians in Lombardy, Italy, who cared for about 400,000 COVID-19 patients found that 40% had symptoms suggestive of the disease, and most had to buy their own personal protective equipment (PPE) and educate themselves on coronavirus management. (Van Beusekom, 4/16)

ABC News: An Ultraviolet Light May Help Fight Spread Of Novel Coronavirus
A researcher at Columbia University says he may have a "public health breakthrough" in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Dr. David Brenner has discovered that a certain kind of light can kill airborne viruses, including some types of coronavirus. (Temko, 4/16)

ABC News: Coronavirus’ Reach From Beyond The Grave: Deceased Body Transmits COVID-19 
Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet vitae succurrere, is a phrase often inscribed on the walls of morgues and autopsy suites. Roughly translated from Latin it means, "This is the place where death rejoices in teaching the living." Indeed, researchers are learning new things about the novel coronavirus almost daily, the most recent lesson coming from beyond the grave. (Baldwin, 4/17)

WBUR: How Bacteria Could Affect Outcomes Of COVID-19 Patients 
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, scientists are racing to unravel every aspect of how this novel virus behaves. The elderly, those with pre-existing conditions and members of disadvantaged communities with less access to health care have the worst outcomes. But what scientists don't understand is why some people who fall outside those groups are also being hospitalized — in some cases dying — while others are not. (Young and Raphelson, 4/16)

The New York Times: Doctors Press F.D.A. To Let More Gay Men Donate Blood
More than 500 doctors, researchers and public health specialists are calling on the Food and Drug Administration to eliminate constraints on blood donations by gay and bisexual men, saying the agency did not go far enough when it relaxed its restrictions earlier this month. The demand was made in a letter dated Thursday that was written by two doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, and signed by hundreds of medical professionals at places like Emory University, Harvard Medical School and the University of Florida. Dispensing with the rules, the letter said, would help to address a drastic drop in the blood supply during the coronavirus pandemic. (Zaveri, 4/16)

The New York Times: Why A Drop In Domestic Violence Reports Might Not Be A Good Sign
One Queens man, angry that his children were crying, slapped his 2-year-old daughter and shoved his wife, prosecutors say. Another threw a glass baby bottle at his wife, enraged that she had left the house against his wishes during the shutdown. A third beat his girlfriend so badly that he broke a bone in her face after she took a long time to run an errand, prosecutors said. The attacks, described in Queens court documents, offer a glimpse of how social distancing and stay-at-home orders have fueled incidents of domestic violence in New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic, even though police have recorded fewer crimes. (Southall, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Facebook To Warn Users Who 'Liked' Coronavirus Hoaxes
Facebook will soon let you know if you shared or interacted with dangerous coronavirus misinformation on the site, the latest in a string of aggressive efforts the social media giant is taking to contain an outbreak of viral falsehoods. The new notice will be sent to users who have clicked on, reacted to, or commented on posts featuring harmful or false claims about COVID-19 after they have been removed by moderators. The alert, which will start appearing on Facebook in the coming weeks, will direct users to a site where the World Health Organization lists and debunks virus myths and rumors. (Ortutay and Seitz, 4/16)

ABC News: Surge In Divorces Anticipated In Wake Of COVID-19 Quarantine 
A wave of divorce filings is expected to break across the country when COVID-19 confinement ends, according to several divorce attorneys. While access to courts is now limited, “when those restrictions are lifted, I have no doubt that there will be an overwhelming number of filings,” said New York divorce attorney Marcy Katz. In Chicago, family law attorney Robert Segal expects a “deluge” of divorce cases. (Fies, 4/17)

WBUR: 'A Perfect Storm': Extremists Look For Ways To Exploit Coronavirus Pandemic 
A March FBI assessment predicted "hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States, due to the spread of coronavirus disease," according to an intelligence report obtained by ABC News. The report, prepared by the FBI's Houston office and issued to law enforcement agencies nationwide, warned that "a portion of the U.S. public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations." That idea has been reinforced by political leaders including President Trump, who has referred to the "Chinese virus" and variations that reference China or Wuhan rather than the clinical terms used by health officials. (Allam, 4/16)

Kaiser Health News: Big Brother Wants To Track Your Location And Health Data. And That’s Not All Bad.
A growing mix of health and technology experts are convinced that if the United States is to ever effectively track the coronavirus and slow its spread, then both self-reported and more surreptitiously gathered personal data — a mix of information about location, travel, symptoms and health conditions ― must be gathered from millions of Americans. (Appleby and Knight, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Ask HHS To Help Address COVID-19 Racial Disparities
Providers are urging the Trump administration to collect more information about what's causing high rates of COVID-19 infection and death among African Americans and other people of color, according to a joint letter sent Thursday to HHS by three major associations. The American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association identified several areas that require more federal attention, including the need for additional information about "comorbidities, the number of patients by race who require ventilators, oxygen support or intubation, and the number who died in their homes." (Brady, 4/16)

ABC News: Blacks Make Up As Many As 30% Of COVID-19 Cases, Per Early CDC Figures 
Of the novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. in which person’s race was identified, 30 percent of those people were black or African American, according to new nationwide statistics posted online by the CDC. That’s despite being only about 13 percent of the U.S. population. (Osborne, Shapiro and Pereira, 4/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Appears Twice As Deadly For Blacks As Whites In California 
The racial disparities that have plagued the cruel and uneven toll of the coronavirus across parts of the nation appear to be emerging in California. The state’s black residents are dying from COVID-19 at nearly twice the rate of white residents, according to initial figures released this week by the California Department of Public Health. As of Tuesday, almost 100 of California’s more than 800 COVID-19 deaths were African Americans, amounting to about 12% of the total. That far outpaces the group’s representation, which is about 6% of the state population. (Alexander, 4/16)

Stateline: Fearing Coronavirus, Many Rural Black Women Avoid Hospitals To Give Birth At Home 
Pregnant women in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi have been calling nonstop to CHOICES Midwifery Practice in Memphis, but the center is booked. The callers are terrified that they or their babies will contract the novel coronavirus if they deliver in hospitals. Some women live in rural areas far from hospitals and obstetrics units. The center’s clients are primarily black and other women of color. (Simpson, 4/17)

ProPublica: Millions of Essential Workers Are Being Left Out Of COVID-19 Workplace Safety Protections, Thanks To OSHA
As news emerged that the novel coronavirus was infecting hundreds of workers in meatpacking plants, Gregoria Rivas began worrying that her chicken processing facility in North Carolina wasn’t doing enough to protect workers like her from the virus. There was no social distancing, she said. Everywhere she went at the Case Farms plant, there were dozens of workers crowded into a small space. In the locker room, where everyone put on their uniforms. (Grabell, Yeung and Jameel, 4/16)

ABC News: 'I'm Not Ready To Die': New 'Essential Workers' Call For Protections, Hazard Pay In Coronavirus Crisis 
Vitalina Williams worked two jobs to make ends meet, at a Walmart and their local grocer, Market Basket in Salem, Massachusetts. As a newly-deemed “essential worker” during the novel coronavirus pandemic, she continued going to work even as COVID-19 made its insidious spread through the U.S. On April 4, she passed away from the coronavirus at the age of 59. (Thorbecke, 4/17)

NBC News: CDC Contractor Failed To Follow Coronavirus Rules, And A Worker Got Sick, Whistleblower Says
It seemed like a godsend to an unemployed former Mississippi college student: a seemingly secure job with a big federal contractor at a time when the coronavirus crisis was crashing the economy in her state and around the country. For Brianna Flores, 22, the added plus to working at a Maximus call center meant she could do some good by giving worried callers coronavirus guidance directly from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Siemaszko, 4/16)

The Hill: California To Provide Food Industry Employees With Two Weeks Paid Leave 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday that the state is providing food industry workers impacted by the coronavirus two weeks of paid sick leave. The order seeks to “fill the gap” left by the federal government’s stimulus bill, which guaranteed paid sick leave for businesses that employ fewer than 500 people and an exemption for businesses with fewer than 50 employees. (Moreno, 4/16)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Coronavirus: Here Are Safety Measures For Essential Businesses
Indiana businesses are operating with new restrictions under Gov. Eric Holcomb's latest order to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. The directive issued last week allows essential businesses to remain open as long as they comply with social distancing requirements and recommended sanitation measures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Pak-Harvey, 4/17)

Reuters: China's Wuhan Raises Coronavirus Death Toll By 50% Citing Early Lapses
The central city where the virus first appeared in humans late last year added another 1,290 fatalities to the 2,579 previously counted as of Thursday, reflecting incorrect reporting, delays and omissions, according to a local government taskforce in charge of controlling the coronavirus. (Chen and Goh, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Chinese Epicenter Wuhan Raises Number Of Virus Dead By 1,290
The addition of 1,290 victims raised Wuhan’s death toll to 3,869, the most in China, and may confirm suspicions that far more people died in the city where the illness began than has been previously announced. The total confirmed cases in the city of 11 million people also increased by 325 to 50,333, accounting for about two-thirds of China’s total 82,367 announced cases. (4/17)

NPR: China Raises Wuhan Death Stats By Half To Account For Reporting Delays And Omissions
The revised figures from Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, reflect incorrect reporting, delays and omissions, according to state-run CCTV television. They add 1,290 deaths, bringing the total for the city to 3,869. The number of confirmed cases there was also increased by 325, bringing the total for the city to 50,333, approximately 60% of mainland China's reported infections. (Neuman, 4/17)

The Associated Press: EPA Guts Rule Credited With Cleaning Up Coal-Plant Toxic Air
The Trump administration on Thursday gutted an Obama-era rule that compelled the country’s coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other human health hazards, a move designed to limit future regulation of air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler said the rollback was reversing what he depicted as regulatory overreach by the Obama administration. “We have put in place an honest accounting method that balances” the cost to utilities with public safety, he said. (Knickmeyer, 4/16)

The Washington Post: EPA Overhauls Mercury Pollution Rule, Despite Opposition From Industry And Activists Alike
The move announced Thursday, one in a series of actions taken by the Trump administration that experts say will probably increase air pollution, comes as the nation is fighting a deadly respiratory virus. In its controversial decision, the EPA declared that it is not “appropriate and necessary” for the government to limit mercury and other harmful pollutants from power plants, even though every utility in America has complied with standards put in place in 2011 under President Barack Obama. (Dennis and Eilperin, 4/16)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Weakens Controls On Mercury
By reducing the positive health effects of regulations on paper and raising their economic costs, the new method could be used to justify loosening restrictions on any pollutant that the fossil fuel industry has deemed too costly to control. “That is the big unstated goal,” said David Konisky, a professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University. “This is less about mercury than about potentially constraining or handcuffing future efforts by the E.P.A. to regulate air pollution.” (Friedman and Davenport, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: Ground Ambulance Surprise Bills Cost More In Total Than Air Ambulances
Congress hasn't focused much on surprise medical billing by ground ambulances, even though researchers found that they bill more in total than air ambulances. However, out-of-network bills for air ambulances were much more expensive for consumers that receive them, researchers from the University of Michigan found in a study published Wednesday in Health Affairs. The authors said this is the first study to document potential costs for patients when plans don't pay for out-of-network ambulance transports. (Cohrs, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: One In 12 Ambulatory Surgery Center Visits May Result In A Surprise Bill
About one in 12 visits to in-network ambulatory surgery centers may result in a surprise medical bill from an out-of-network provider, according to a study published Wednesday in Health Affairs. On average, the surprise medical bills would potentially have left patients on the hook for $1,141, the study found. Most of the time, the cases that could have resulted in a surprise bill involved an out-of-network anesthesiologist or registered nurse anesthetist. (Livingston, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Wants To Boost Inpatient Rehab Payments By 2.9% In 2021
The CMS Thursday proposed to increase Medicare payments to inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 2.9%, or $270 million, in 2021. That figure is based on an estimated 2.5% increase factor plus a 0.4% boost in aggregate payments to peg outlier payments at 3.0% of total payments. The agency also suggested applying a 5% cap on wage index decreases from fiscal year 2020 to 2021, as per the Office of Management and Budget's statistical area delineations. (Brady, 4/16)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Agrees To Refund Mission Health Patients, Reverse Billing Change
HCA Healthcare has agreed to drop new fees it added for visits to Mission Health's cancer centers, primary care clinics, surgery centers and other specialty clinics and issue refunds to patients who paid them. The Nashville-based hospital chain made the change in response to an inquiry from North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. In a letter to Stein last week, Nashville-based HCA acknowledged that a billing change it implemented across the Mission system on Aug. 1, 2019 created confusion, and agreed to refund affected patients and return to its previous billing method. The letter did not address other concerns Stein had raised. (Bannow, 4/14)

Undark: How The Anti-Vaccine Community Is Responding To Covid-19
In early March, Melissa Floyd, a self-described health freedom educator who co-hosts “The Vaccine Conversation” podcast, was forced to abruptly change plans. She and her co-host were supposed to pack up for a live multi-city tour. But the public health crisis borne from Covid-19 delayed the start of their tour for months. Floyd and her co-host, Bob Sears, a California-based pediatrician who advocates a delayed vaccine schedule and skipping some vaccines, addressed the cancellation in a podcast episode, noting that they don’t have any personal fear of the virus. Our government agencies, Floyd said, “are talking about washing your hands, but why aren’t they talking about things you can do to boost your immune system like vitamin D? Why aren’t they talking about reducing sugar? Why aren’t they talking about eating fruits and vegetables and staying away from processed foods? (Gammon, 4/16)

Politico: Why This Recession Will Be Different (And How To Keep It Mild)
The new threat of Covid-19 has thrust new cadres of experts into the public eye, mostly from the health world. Now that we’re heading into a sharp and sudden economic downturn, with ballooning unemployment and a stock market down almost 20 percent, attention is turning to a new kind of expert: recession whizzes. Duke University’s Campbell Harvey, an economist best known for discovering a crucial bellwether of coming recessions, has suddenly found himself much in demand. Since late March, Harvey has been asked to speak multiple times to virtual audiences; 1,000 people tuned in Saturday night to hear what he thinks will happen as Covid-19 shutters the global economy. (Guinto, 4/13)

The Atlantic: The Privilege Of Immunity
When a young man named Isaac H. Charles arrived in yellow-fever-ravaged New Orleans in 1847, he did not, as one might expect, try to avoid the deadly disease, which killed as many as half of its victims at the time. He welcomed yellow fever—and, more importantly, the lifelong immunity he would have if he survived it. Luckily, he did. “It is with great pleasure,” he wrote to his cousin, “that I am able to tell you with certainty, that both [my brother] Dick & I are acclimated.” (Zhang, 4/16)

Undark: How The Covid-19 Pandemic May Reshape U.S. Hospital Design
As COVID-19 fill emergency rooms and intensive care units across the U.S., local officials have been rushing to convert hotels, convention centers, and city parks into new hospital spaces. Amid the scramble, many physicians, architects, and health care consultants are already talking about how modern hospital designs could change to avoid a repeat of the current national crisis. One clear lesson: Modern hospitals often lack the flexibility to accommodate a sudden surge of patients. In particular, many hospitals have been running out of space and resources to treat Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms, while at the same time handling those with mild symptoms and the asymptomatic who may infect health care workers and other patients. (Hsu, 4/16)

The New York Times: A Week At The Pandemic's Epicenter
Inside the underfunded, overwhelmed public hospitals that are trying to save New York. (Montgomery and Mahler, 4/15)

The Wall Street Journal: The Lockdown Protests Begin
The shutdowns to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus have now stretched longer than a month. Despite the economic cost and emotional toll, Americans have heeded orders and practiced social distancing to ensure hospitals aren’t overwhelmed. But the public’s patience won’t last forever, and it is most likely to fray when officials impose arbitrary restrictions that defy common sense. A case in point is Michigan, where thousands gathered in the state capital this week to protest sweeping restrictions issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Under her April 9 executive order, stores that remain open must cordon off their furniture, garden supplies and paint, and must refrain from advertising anything but groceries, medicine and basic household supplies. Ms. Whitmer permits canoeing and sailing but not motor-boating or jet-skiing. Michiganders can get their oil changed but “in general” not their bikes fixed. (4/16)

The Washington Post: Why The Lockdown Skeptics Are Wrong
There are still so many uncertainties about covid-19. We don’t know what percentage of infected people end up dead or disabled, how contagious it is, or how long a recovered person’s immunity might last. All we can really be sure of is that, without strenuous mitigation efforts, covid-19 will kill in terrifying numbers. So until we get a vaccine, it’s very likely we’ll all be engaged in a prolonged and grueling trench warfare with this virus. (Megan McArdle, 4/16)

The Hill: How Congress Should Help Hospitals In The Next COVID-19 Relief Bill
COVID-19 created an unprecedented financial crisis for American hospitals. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides $100 billion in grants to help with the immediate funding challenge and another relief bill is in the works. That legislation should go beyond writing more checks. Promoting more efficient health care and expanding health insurance to the uninsured are better strategies for the long run. (Joseph Antos and Ge Bai, 4/16)

The Washington Post: The ‘Dreamers’ Are An Essential Part Of Our Covid-19 Response 
P. is a “dreamer,” one of the 825,000 unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children who have received protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. (I’m using only her last initial because she fears attracting attention to her family, which is still undocumented.) DACA, created by the Obama administration in 2012, shields these young immigrants from deportation and allows them to work. An estimated 29,000 are health-care workers like P. and on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. (Catherine Rampell, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Trump Refuses To Lead A Country In Crisis 
For three years, we were lucky. We made it through most of President Trump’s term in office without facing a crisis that required great presidential leadership. Now, our luck has run out, and we are on our own. It is difficult to overstate the scope of the challenge that covid-19 presents to the nation and the world — or the tragic inadequacy of Trump and his administration. (Eugene Robinson, 4/16)

The Hill: Propaganda In The Coronavirus Era 
The White House propaganda has risen to new highs in recent days, as President Trump turns the coronavirus daily briefings into a prime time opportunity to sell himself, replete with videos that double as campaign ads. For his critics, this is the ultimate display of him as a carnival barker, touting himself blatantly at the great expense of taxpayers. “I have gotten to like this room,” Trump said this week, as if he discovered a new form of communication. He then came up with the idea of stamping his name on the stimulus checks going out to millions of Americans in distress. (John Hamilton and Kevin Kosar, 4/16)

The Hill: The Pandemic Could Steer Us Toward A Sustainable, Resilient Future
The blow delivered by the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for American businesses and workers. Although the full impact may not be realized for months — or even years — it is evident that bold, innovative programs will be needed to reignite the American economic engine. One of the most effective ways to get our economy moving again as we emerge from the virus’s deadly stranglehold will be to create jobs and competitiveness in the clean energy economy to climate-proof our future. (Sherri Goodman and Greg Douquet, 4/16)

Boston Globe: The Case For Death Benefits And Loan Forgiveness For Coronavirus Front-Line Health Care Workers 
Front-line COVID-19 health care workers are at increased risk of severe illness. They are pursuing their calling and jobs selflessly, yet are appropriately concerned not just about themselves but about not being there for their families. Many don’t have adequate insurance, and don’t solely have federal student loans: While federal loans are discharged after death, private student loans are not. Which is why Congress should pass legislation granting death benefits and educational debt relief for front-line health care workers. (David Silbersweig, 4/16)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Coronavirus Unknowns Mean Ohio Must Begin Planning Now For A Possible Mail-In Nov. 3 Vote 
While many in Ohio and Greater Cleveland likely are looking forward to the beginning of relaxed coronavirus restrictions next month, a huge unknown remains: What will the COVID-19 pandemic look like in the fall, when cold weather returns and viruses tend to surge? That uncertainty is why Ohio officeholders need to start planning – now – for a possible all-postal statewide election this fall, when Ohio’s voters will help elect, or re-elect, a president, members of Congress and the General Assembly, two Supreme Court justices, and a swarm of local officials. (4/17)

The Washington Post: Prepare For Collateral Damage As Devastating As The Virus 
The pandemic of the novel coronavirus is a bow wave, slicing through whole populations at breakneck speed. But what is not being seen yet is the enormous collateral damage to global health. The pandemic is making it harder or impossible to combat such scourges as measles, polio, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which caused death and suffering even before covid-19, and now will bring even more. The wake of the pandemic may become every bit as devastating as the bow wave. (4/16)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Shows Gaps In U.S. Ability To Track Disease 
In the U.S., federal expenditures for public health have fallen from 1% of total healthcare expenditures in the early 1970s to 0.3% in 2018. But there is nothing like a global pandemic to motivate the public to pause and consider the proper role of government in healthcare and how to improve the system. As we move forward, one key component of a strengthened public health system should be a real-time universal data system for tracking infectious disease. Collecting and analyzing real-time data on the number of cases and deaths during a disease outbreak is crucial in tracking the spread of disease and gauging its impact. But the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that these numbers can’t provide reliable information without the relevant denominator: the number of people tested. (Gilbert Welch, 4/17)

Boston Globe: Tracking Coronavirus With Smartphones Isn’t Just A Tech Problem
Since the beginning of the pandemic, it’s been clear that public health data can help us respond to COVID-19. But the quest for data can also create new threats that are alarming in their own right. We see that potential problem in a collaboration between two of Silicon Valley’s fiercest rivals, Google and Apple, which have joined forces to create a contact tracing platform to help contain the virus. (Albert Fox Cahn and Evan Seligman, 4/17)

CNN: Create A CARES Corps To Lead The Covid-19 Recovery
Americans are hearing a lot from mayors and doctors right now, in the crucible of a public health emergency unlike any seen in the United States since the 1918 flu pandemic a century ago. This partnership is playing out in communities across the country: physicians are treating patients affected by the Covid-19 surge and dispensing advice on how to do it better, and elected leaders are welcoming that guidance in hopes of saving more lives. (Eric Garcetti, David Holt and Mark McClellan, 4/16)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Becoming America's Leading Cause Of Death 
In just weeks, Covid-19 deaths have snowballed from a few isolated cases to thousands across the country each day. The U.S. surgeon general had warned that last week would be like Pearl Harbor as he attempted to create context for the threat — but it turned out that more than five times as many Americans died from Covid-19 last week than were killed in the World War II raid. You can grasp the scale when you compare a single week’s pandemic deaths with how many people die of major causes in a typical week. (Dan Keating and Chiqui Esteban, 4/16)

Stat: Medical Students Called To The Covid-19 Fight Need Protection 
As the escalating Covid-19 pandemic puts increasing pressure on health systems, a shortage of medical personnel has hospitals looking toward unconventional sources to fill the gap. Some are bringing in retired physicians. Others are turning to medical students. (Goshua, 4/17)

CNN: My Team Fights To Save The Sickest Patients. Give Us Head-To-Toe Protection
As my patient lost his pulse, not one person hesitated to take action. A nurse jumped in to do CPR, a physician placed a breathing tube in his trachea, while another placed a large IV catheter for a rapid blood transfusion. As an emergency physician, I (Alicia) was the team leader, assigning roles and directing every action. My team had done this hundreds of times. (Alicia Lu and Dan Wu, 4/16)

Stat: I Was A 'Perfect Setup' To Be Fooled By Covid-19 
“Hi,this is Pooja,” I answered my phone promptly. I had been waiting all day for this call from the occupational health department at the hospital where I work. Though I had tested negative for Covid-19, it was my eighth day of isolation for a “deep, dry cough” that seemed to be improving, and I was eager to return to work. (Pooja Yerramilli, 4/17)

The Hill: Age Must Not Be Used As Primary Criteria To Deny Treatment
As we face a global pandemic, depictions of older people as frail, vulnerable, and burdensome have dominated the news. Chillingly, these stereotypes have made it acceptable for some governments and health systems in the U.S. and abroad to develop guidelines that permit providers to use age as a proxy to deny life-saving treatments, such as a ventilator, if there is a scarcity. (Nora Super and James Appleby, 4/16)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Has Broken The U.S. Health System. Now What? 
With the United States experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, the facade of our health system has come crashing down. We simply cannot afford to go on with the current structure, starting with how we provide access to care. Twenty-two million Americans have filed jobless claims in the last four weeks. Not only have they lost their incomes, they may have lost something even more valuable during a pandemic: health insurance. (Haider Warraich, 4/16)