US-Covid-19 Updates

April 20, 2020
U.S. tops 40,565 deaths
Another day, another grim milestone as the nation nears 764,265 confirmed covid-19 cases till now. As always, click through to explore our maps and data tracking coronavirus deaths and confirmed cases down to the county level. 

Crowds flocked to Florida beaches this weekend after the state became one of the first to relax quarantine guidelines amid a White House push to reopen the economy. News footage showed Jacksonville shorelines speckled with people — many swimming, running or lounging close enough to share virus particles — a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) mocked California's beach bans and said, “I think we’ve got to be promoting people to get exercise.”

Florida Beach

Small groups of protesters continue to gather in other states, urging their leaders to end stay-at-home orders. Dozens gathered in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Saturday for a rally organized by a member of the conspiracy theory site Infowars. Others groups held similar events in Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Nevada over the weekend. In New Jersey, a would-be organizer was arrested and charged with violating emergency orders. You can watch video of several protests here.

President Trump has tacitly encouraged the anti-quarantine movement. “I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away” with restrictions, he said Saturday. “America’s testing capability and capacity is fully sufficient to begin opening the country.”

Most health experts and many governors strongly disagree. Just 1 percent of Americans have been tested for the virus so far, with supply shortages still widespread and no apparent plan to expand testing to the level needed to track and contain new outbreaks after public life resumes.

Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged that the Trump administration was warned about the coronavirus threat. Americans at the World Health Organization gave real-time information to the White House, undercutting the president's charge that the WHO’s failure to communicate the extent of the threat, out of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States.

Serious problems are being reported with a new generation of tests flooding U.S. markets. The Food and Drug Administration allowed more than 90 brands of unvetted antibody tests to be sold to hospitals and acknowledges that some of them may be inaccurate or fraudulent. The tests are supposed to identify people who have been exposed to the virus, but health experts fear they may be giving false results. “Having many inaccurate tests is worse than having no tests at all,” the director of infectious disease programs at the Association of Public Health Laboratories told The Post.

Even if Americans are sent back to work, new polls reveal widespread fear would likely hinder efforts to kick-start the economy. Three out of four U.S. adults said the worst of the outbreak is yet to come, and 2 in 3 worried that restrictions would be lifted too soon, the Pew Research Center found. The University of Michigan’s monthly consumer survey found that 61 percent of Americans were more concerned about threats to their health than financial hardship. How do you feel?

More important news
Administration officials and Democratic congressional leaders say they are close to a deal that would add $360 billion more in emergency funds for small businesses and another $100 billion for hospitals and testing.

A double whammy for millions of Americans as the coronavirus costs them both their jobs and their health insurance. One think tank forecasts between 12 million and 35 million people will lose medical coverage during the outbreak.