The Four Percent
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Mnuchin: Checks will arrive for most Americans within three weeks.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, at a news briefing Wednesday evening at the White House, predicted a $2 trillion rescue package would pass the Senate on Wednesday night and said that Americans would receive stimulus checks “within the next three weeks.”
Under the bill, Americans with incomes up to $75,000 would get $1,200, and Mr. Mnuchin said those payments would come as “direct payments into most people’s deposit accounts.” Those without direct deposit will receive checks.
Mr. Mnuchin said he will instruct commercial banks to begin extended loans next week off the pending deposits.
The president expressed confidence at the White House briefing that things in the country were improving. “America continues to gain ground in the war against the virus,” he said.
But as he spoke, the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed that New York State has asked the federal government to build emergency morgues as the number of confirmed cases in the state reached more than 30,000. North Carolina and Hawaii also submitted requests for the additional morgue space.
Fauci sees signs of the virus becoming cyclical, like the flu.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that he was seeing indications that the virus could keep returning as a “seasonal, cyclic thing,” like the flu.
One of the key questions about the virus has been whether its spread would slow or stop in warm weather and return in cold weather, and Dr. Fauci suggested that it may follow that seasonal pattern.
“What we are starting to see now in the southern hemisphere,” he said, referring specifically to southern Africa, “is that we are having cases that are appearing as they go into their winter season. And if, in fact, they have a substantial outbreak, it will be inevitable that we need to be prepared that we will get a cycle around the second time.”
That makes it all the more important that scientists “have a vaccine available for that next cycle,” as well as “a menu of drugs that we have shown to be effective and shown to be safe,” he said.
Schools extend closings, and some signal that students may not return until next year.
As the virus spreads, school systems around the country are extending closings that superintendents once hoped would only last for a few weeks.
School districts in six Bay Area counties, including San Francisco, said on Wednesday that the schools would remain closed at least through May 1, and Maryland said the state would keep schools shuttered for another month, until at least April 24. In Connecticut, the governor extended the suspension of in-school classes through April 20 but indicated that students could stay at home until fall. And in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker said that he would keep schools closed at least through at least May 4.
“This is not an extended school vacation,” Mr. Baker said Wednesday, saying that schools would continue to develop programs for home instruction.
Some states have already gone farther. Virginia officials announced this week that schools would not reopen until the fall. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was the first to take that drastic step when, last week, she ordered all schools to close until the fall.
At least 55 million K-12 students in every state have been affected by the coronavirus, according to Education Week, a website that is tracking the closings.
Republican opposition to jobless aid delays final action on $2 trillion stimulus plan.
A last-minute dispute over jobless aid was delaying a final Senate vote expected on Wednesday to approve sweeping legislation to deliver $2 trillion in government relief for an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Four Republican senators said they believed the bill, which would provide a substantial expansion of unemployment insurance, could lead to layoffs and incentivize workers to collect unemployment payments rather than take a job. They argued that because the unemployment benefits would in some cases be greater than people’s regular wages, some employers and employees would decide that layoffs were preferable. The senators said they would object to fast-tracking a vote until their concerns were addressed.
“If this is not a drafting error, then this is the worst idea I have seen in a long time,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “We need to create a sustainable system.”
Republicans who wrote the provision with the Trump administration said there was no mistake, and that Mr. Graham and the other Republicans were misinterpreting the plan.
“Nothing in this bill incentivizes businesses to lay off employees, in fact it’s just the opposite,” said Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the Finance Committee chairman.
But the Republican reservations had a cascading effect. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and a Democratic presidential candidate, said if Republicans insisted on their objections, he would block the bill for being too lenient on corporations.
The legislation, which is expected to be enacted within days, is the biggest economic relief package in modern American history, dwarfing the Wall Street bailout of 2008 during the financial crisis. The aim is to deliver critical financial support to businesses forced to shut their doors and relief to American families and hospitals reeling from the rapid spread of the disease and the resulting economic disruption.
Senate leaders still hoped to vote on it later Wednesday, and the House was expected to follow suit on Thursday.
Among the items in the bill are:
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A $1,200 payment for adult with incomes up to $75,000 (or families with incomes of $150,000), and $500 per child. The assistance phases out for people who earn more.
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$350 billion in loans for small businesses to help cover their expenses for up to 10 weeks.
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$500 billion in aid to airlines and other large corporations that have been hurt by cratering consumer demand. Much of the money would be used to backstop loans and other assistance that the Federal Reserve said it planned to extend to companies.
What is ‘essential’? Chain stores push the limits. And what about guns?
All over the country, homebound Americans are crafting thousands upon thousands of face masks to help shield doctors, nurses and many others from the coronavirus. They are making masks for America, much as a previous generation manufactured ammunition and tended “victory gardens” during World War II.
The coronavirus relief package as drafted is a win for airlines, who got the bailout they asked for. But hotel owners, particularly small business owners who own the majority of brand-name hotels, are still worried over how quickly the money will be available and whether it will be enough to help, with travel expected to be down well into the summer. The bill includes tax breaks, but many businesses would not see cash refunds until 2021. And while the deal will get a lot of checks in the mail, the aid might soothe financial pain for only a few months. More may be needed soon.
Stocks were up early in the day as Congress debated the bill, but the gains faded as debate continued without a vote in the Senate. The S&P 500 ended the day up 1 percent.
Coronavirus concerns postpone wildfire season preparations around the country.
As much of the Western United States braces for another fire season, which typically ramps up in the middle of May, some wildland managers find themselves with one less tool in their arsenal to mitigate risk. Prescribed burns, in which firefighters deliberately set lands ablaze with the goal of reducing brush, grasses and other easily ignitable material that can help fuel large fires, have been postponed in all Forest Service regions because of concerns over the coronavirus.
“This decision to temporarily postpone ignitions will prevent any effects from smoke that might further worsen conditions for those who are at risk in our communities,” Imani Lester, the acting National Press Officer for the United States Forest Service said in an email.
Older adults and people with underlying conditions like asthma are especially at risk for suffering adverse reactions to smoke from wildfires, which in recent years have been made worse by climate change. They are also more likely to become more severely ill from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Prescribed or controlled burns are planned to burn at lower intensity than wildfires and generate less air pollution as a result. They are typically managed in such a way to minimize the number of people who are affected by the smoke. And firefighters who primarily perform prescribed burns have a lower overall risk than those who perform other forms of wildland firefighting.
The postponement comes as much of the West is experiencing uncommonly good air quality in part because the coronavirus has led to fewer people driving and flying.
New York sees early signs that social distancing could be working.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York continued to grow — reaching more than 30,000 — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday that there were early signs that the state’s stringent restrictions on social gatherings could be slowing the virus’s spread.
In a briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said there were indications that social distancing measures put in place in New York appeared to be helping — but that more needed to be done. “The evidence suggests that the density control measures may be working,” he said.
On Sunday, for example, the state’s projections showed hospitalizations doubling every two days. By Tuesday, the estimates showed hospitalizations doubling every 4.7 days, he said — adding the caveat that such a projection was “almost too good to be true.”
He cited encouraging news from Westchester County, where the rate of infection has slowed. “We have dramatically slowed what was an exponential rate of increase,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That was the hottest cluster in the United States of America. We closed the schools, we closed gatherings, we brought in testing, and we have dramatically slowed the increase.”
But Mr. Cuomo said that more needed to be done, particularly to make it easier to maintain social distancing in New York City, the most densely populated major city in the United States.
New York State, which has tested more people than any other state, now has 30,811 confirmed cases, an increase of more than 5,000 since Tuesday morning. More than 200 people have already died statewide. New York City has 17,856 confirmed cases.
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At one New York City hospital, an ‘apocalyptic’ surge.
At Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, Dr. Ashley Bray performed chest compressions Tuesday on a woman in her 80s, a man in his 60s and a 38-year-old who reminded the doctor of her fiancé. All had tested positive for the coronavirus. All eventually died.
Elmhurst, a 545-bed public hospital, has begun transferring patients not suffering from coronavirus to other facilities as it moves toward becoming a facility dedicated entirely to the outbreak. Doctors and nurses have struggled to make do with a few dozen ventilators. Calls over a loudspeaker of “Team 700,” the code for when a patient is on the verge of death, come several times a shift. Some have died inside the emergency room while waiting for a bed.
A refrigerated truck has been stationed outside to hold the bodies of the dead. Over the past 24 hours, New York City’s public hospital system said in a statement, 13 people at Elmhurst had died.
“It’s apocalyptic,” said Dr. Bray, a general medicine resident at the hospital.
All of the more than 1,800 intensive care units in New York City are expected to be full by Friday, according to a F.E.M.A. leadership briefing obtained by The New York Times. Patients could stay for weeks, limiting space for newly sickened residents..
Do people who survive the coronavirus become immune to it?
Recovered coronavirus patients appear to gain immunity to the virus, scientists say, but with some significant unknowns. Now they are testing treatments that could help end the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of plasma from recovered patients to treat some severe cases. And New York will begin testing serum from people who have recovered from the virus to treat those who are seriously ill.
A study in macaques infected with the new coronavirus suggested that once infected, the monkeys produce neutralizing antibodies and resist further infection. But it is unclear how long the monkeys, or people, would remain immune.
Still, even if people become reinfected, the second bout with the coronavirus would likely be much milder than the first, said Florian Krammer, a microbiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
The quickest way to assess immunity is a test that looks for protective antibodies in the blood of people who have recovered. Antibody tests are used in a handful of countries, but are just widely coming to market in the West. Before the method can be put into wide use, scientists must address certain safety issues. Some pharmaceutical companies are hoping to sidestep some of those concerns by developing antibodies against the coronavirus in the laboratory.
States shun visitors to limit the spread of the virus.
Florida has a message for New Yorkers: Please don’t visit.
Hawaii, another state that thrives on tourism, is asking tourists to stay away for a month.
And Alaska is requiring a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering that state from, as Alaskans put it, Outside.
It is a rare circumstance in the United States, a country where travel between states is generally welcomed, that states are suddenly looking for ways to discourage residents of other states from coming into theirs. They are on particular alert for travelers from New York City, which has far more cases than any other area in the country.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed an executive order this week requiring a 14-day quarantine of anyone who had arrived from the New York region over the past three weeks.
Stephen Moosbrugger received the quarantine orders when he landed in Miami on Tuesday evening from New York. He had planned to reunite with his wife in their Miami Beach apartment, but opted to ride out the quarantine in a hotel room after telephoning his son from the airport.
“He said, ‘Well, Dad, that’s really stupid,’” Mr. Moosbrugger, 64, recalled with a chuckle. “It’s a shame when your child is lecturing the father.”
But in some places, cross-border travel seems unlikely to slow. Mayor Randy Hibberd of Weiser, Idaho said he had gone to a doctor’s appointment in Boise the other day, a trip that took him briefly into Oregon, which has reported nearly three times as many cases.
“I was asked when I got there if I’d been out of state and I said ‘Yeah, this morning,’” he said. “You can’t close things down.”
To ensure hot spots get what they need, experts say Washington should manage the nation’s ventilator supply.
As hospitals prepare for a flood of desperately ill patients unable to breathe on their own, public health experts are calling on the federal government to oversee the nation’s ventilator supply so hospitals overwhelmed by coronavirus patients are not forced to ration the lifesaving equipment.
There are currently fewer than 200,000 ventilators in the United States, when nearly a million could be needed over the course of the pandemic. As leaders continue to wrangle over how to increase the supply of the crucial equipment, experts are suggesting that the existing stock could be used more efficiently.
Because peak coronavirus infections will hit cities and regions at different times in the coming months, experts are calling for a centralized federal effort to send machines to infection hot spots from cities and states that have yet to experience significant numbers of cases.
“This is a national crisis,” said Frank Kendall, who served as under secretary of defense for acquisition and logistics in the Obama administration. “In a time of scarcity, you can’t leave it up to companies and governors to manage it themselves.”
Mr. Kendall said that only the federal government had the authority to take over the allocation of ventilators, both from manufacturers who are in the business of selling devices to the highest bidder, and state leaders who are unlikely to voluntarily let go of machines they fear they might need in the future.
“As the states become more desperate, someone has to referee the situation,” he said. “The marketplace isn’t set up to do that.”
As states delay primaries, June 2 is suddenly a major date in the Democratic race.
Pennsylvania is poised to become the 10th state to delay its presidential primary election because of the coronavirus pandemic, with its State Senate voting in an extraordinary remote session Wednesday afternoon to move the contest from April 28 to June 2.
Gov. Tom Wolf, who has said he favors the delay, was expected to sign the measure as early as Wednesday evening.
With numerous states, including Indiana, Connecticut and Ohio, pushing or preparing to push their presidential primaries to June 2 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the votes that day will confer a huge bounty of delegates, second only to Super Tuesday in early March.
Although former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has built an all but insurmountable lead, June 2 — which is 10 weeks away — will be his first chance to clinch his party’s presidential nomination. Only then would he have a definitive reason to press for the withdrawal of his rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has shown no inclination to leave a race that feels frozen in place.
Nine other states, as well as Puerto Rico, have taken action over the past two weeks to adjust the dates of their elections as the campaign calendar has been upended by the outbreak. Elections officials in New York are also considering postponing that state’s April 28 primary, with June 23 as the likely replacement.
Pennsylvania would be the sixth state to shift its primary to June 2, joining five other contests already scheduled for that Tuesday.
Even as the calendar shifted, state officials and voting rights advocates were concerend that the $400 million included in the Senate stimulus package to safeguard elections is far less than the amount states will need to implement voting by mail across the nation. The $400 million is one-fifth of the $2 billion that voting experts said was needed and that some Democrats had sought.
Iran announces new rules on travel.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran announced new restrictions on travel and public gatherings on Wednesday, in a belated attempt to contain the growing spread of the virus.
The rules will be in effect for nine days starting Thursday and ban travel in or out of cities unless for emergency purposes, the government said. Nonessential private businesses and open public spaces, including parks and gardens, were ordered to shut down. Violations will be penalized, the government warned.
“People must adjust to more difficult circumstances because we have no choice. Saving the lives of people is very important to us,” Mr. Rouhani said.
The majority of the government’s 2.4 million employees would be told to stay home, with exceptions in the health care and banking sectors, a government spokesman said.
The move comes after Mr. Rouhani was criticized for his management of the crisis, particularly for allowing Iranians to travel across the country last week for Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Iran’s transportation police estimated that 8.5 million people traveled for the holiday, risking further spread of the virus.
Iran’s health ministry said on Thursday that there were 27,017 cases across the country and that 2,077 people had died, including 43 medical workers.
The ministry has asked Iran’s parliament to continue suspending sessions for two more weeks and to resort to video calls for meetings.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has the coronavirus.
Prince Charles, first in line to the British throne, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a spokesman for the royal family said on Wednesday.
Charles, 71, had been experiencing mild symptoms for days, but has “otherwise remained in good health” and is working from home, according to a statement released by Clarence House, the prince’s official residence.
“The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus,” the statement said, referring to Prince Charles’s wife. Both are now self-isolating at Birkhall, their home in Scotland.
It was impossible to tell who Prince Charles may have caught the virus from “owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks,” Clarence House noted. Handshakes, meetings and public appearances are a daily reality for members of the royal family, and Prince Charles had taken part in a number of engagements this month.
Prince Charles is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, who went into self-isolation last week, leaving Buckingham Palace for her country home, Windsor Castle.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said “the queen remains in good health.”
Seeing the coronavirus as a marathon fight? Here are some tips.
Experts say the coronavirus crisis is likely to last for a long time — and for many people confined to their homes, the novelty is beginning to wear off. Here are some tips to help you fight the burnout you may feel, manage your antsy teenagers, and even to freshen up your home.
Reporting and research were contributed by Farnaz Fassihi, Michael Cooper, Karen Zraick, Alan Blinder, Lara Jakes, Abby Goodnough, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Katie Thomas, Andrew Jacobs, Neal E. Boudette, Matt Richtel, Nicholas Kulish, Michael Rothfeld, Somini Sengupta, Joseph Goldstein, Mark Landler, Emily Cochrane, Katie Robertson, Andrew Higgins, Kendra Pierre-Louis, Johnny Diaz, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Patricia Mazzei, Julie Bosman, Marc Santora, Megan Specia, Raphael Minder, Anna Schaverien, Ed O’Loughlin, Trip Gabriel, Iliana Magra, Jeffrey Gettleman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Haley Willis, Robin Stein, Natalie Reneau, Drew Jordan, Matt Phillips, Noam Scheiber, Mike Isaac, Dan Levin, Sheera Frenkel and Apoorva Mandavilli.
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