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This is politics in a pandemic age: A presidential debate conducted in a sterile television studio, podiums separated by an awkward six feet, and a former vice president insisting that he no longer touched his face. (Seconds before, he had touched his face.) The debate cemented the weeks-old reality that the novel coronavirus pandemic has come to dominate every aspect of American politics. And it provided the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates — who greeted one another not with a handshake but with an elbow bump — a chance to articulate a presidential message in the face of inconsistent, often inaccurate messaging from the Trump administration. (Facher, 3/15)

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began with an elbow tap. They stood behind lecterns six feet apart, in keeping with federal health guidelines. They rarely interrupted each other, initially, subsisting on mutually nonaggressive meditations on the menace of the coronavirus and how to corral it. “This is a national crisis,” Mr. Biden said early in Sunday’s debate. “I don’t want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics here.” (Flegenheimer and Ember, 3/15)

Kaiser Health News: And Then There Were Two: Biden, Sanders Debate With Coronavirus On Everyone’s Mind

In the midst of a global health crisis that has disrupted daily life and heightened anxieties for millions of Americans, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday urged people showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus to seek medical attention without fear of the cost. But the remaining major Democratic candidates offered two starkly different images of leadership in a time of crisis. Biden insisted that the federal government should help pay consumers’ bills in this unusual time, while Sanders focused in particular on how the coronavirus pandemic underscores the need to reform the health system. (Huetteman, 3/16)

After more than 30 minutes of posing questions almost entirely about policy and decision-making related to coronavirus, Dana Bash, one of CNN’s moderators for Sunday’s Democratic debate, took a moment to make the topic deeply personal. What, she asked former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, were they doing to protect themselves from becoming infected? (Stevens, 3/15)

It was also almost certainly the first presidential debate in history to include the sentences "I'm using a lot of soap" (Sanders) and "I wash my hands God knows how many times a day" (Biden). (Seitz-Wald, 3/15)

Asked about the pandemic, Biden adopted a wartime posture, talking about immediate steps he would take as president and frequently referencing the White House Situation Room. He called for expanding hospital capacity, erecting temporary medical facilities and said unequivocally he would call on the U.S. military to help respond to the outbreak. "This is like we are being attacked from abroad," he said, also urging Sanders to put their ideological divide aside. (3/16)

Mr. Sanders called the coronavirus crisis an “unprecedented moment in American history,” and said it drew attention to the fact that the country lacked “a system that is prepared to provide health care for all people.” In an early barb directed at Mr. Biden, Mr. Sanders said it would take a direct confrontation with the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to remedy the situation, including enacting his proposal for a “Medicare for all”-style system that he has championed. (Burns and Martin, 3/16)

The candidates remained their essential selves — even at a virtual, epidemiology-minded distance — as if straying from their preferred political brands would amount to coronavirus surrender. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed flags in a Vermont hotel on Friday, instead of a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed Ohioans or Floridians, talking up “Medicare for all” and polling support for his health care vision. (Glegenheimer, 3/15)

News-wise, there were two important takeaways. The first is that Biden did nothing to raise any fresh doubts about his electability. He was coherent, in control of his arguments in a way that he isn’t always, and aggressive enough against Sanders to keep the Vermont senator, who is rightfully respected as an excellent debater, on defense frequently. Sanders’ best hope was some kind of asteroid-like event that caused Biden to buckle on stage. It didn’t happen. The second piece of news was Biden’s long-hinted at but now officially promised commitment to pick a female running mate. When Sanders was asked if he would commit to the same, he fell short of an ironclad promise. “In all likelihood, I will,” Sanders said. “To me, it's not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a progressive woman.” (Lizza, 3/16)

Anyone who thought that former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were ready to begin to make peace in their competition for the Democratic presidential nomination got a big surprise on Sunday night. Their debate quickly shifted from talk of pandemics to arguments over past records and future visions. For much of the two-hour debate, it seemed like business as usual, and yet both candidates and their campaigns know that everything is changing because of the spreading coronavirus. (Balz, 3/15)

Sunday night’s often combative meeting had no audience, a reflection of the national shutdown of daily life in an attempt to slow the new coronavirus. Gone, too, were their other top competitors who have since fallen from the race. Instead the two men—one firmly tied to the party’s establishment, the other a self-described democratic socialist—took questions from three moderators in Washington. The traditional handshake at the start was replaced with an elbow bump. The rivals then took their posts at podiums six-feet apart, far enough to create social distancing from potential contamination. (McCormick, 3/15)

After the debate, Sanders questioned the wisdom of holding the primaries after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday recommended events with gatherings of 50 or more people be postponed or canceled over the next eight weeks. "I would hope that governors listen to the public health experts," Sanders said in an interview with CNN. "I’m thinking about some of the elderly people who are sitting behind the desks, registering people, doing all that stuff. Does that make a lot of sense? Not sure that it does." (3/16)

Former Vice President Joe Biden asked voters in a slew of Tuesday primary states to "please vote" as the coronavirus crisis has led to widespread closings and cancellations as officials try to corral the COVID-19 outbreak. Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona are slated to hold primaries Tuesday. Already, Georgia and Louisiana have announced that they are pushing back their primaries from March and April to May and June. (Smith, 3/15)

As the coronavirus outbreak upends the presidential campaign, we’re keeping tabs on postponements and cancellations in the election calendar and on major changes for voting. Two states — Louisiana and Georgia — have postponed their presidential primary elections. But the four states scheduled to vote on Tuesday — Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio — have all indicated they intend to hold their elections as planned. (Corasaniti and Saul, 3/16)

Louisiana will postpone its April 4 primary election for more than two months, officials announced on Friday, becoming the first state in the nation to adjust its elections in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The news comes as officials in the next four states scheduled to vote in the presidential primary — Ohio, Arizona, Florida and Illinois — have all indicated that they intend to hold their elections on Tuesday as planned, issuing a joint statement on Friday expressing confidence that ballots can be safely cast. (Corasasaniti and Mazzei, 3/13)

In October 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders was whisked into Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s residence at the Naval Observatory for a breakfast of yogurt parfaits and caffeinated campaign advice from a vice president who had just announced his (temporary) retirement from presidential politics. The meeting, according to aides, lasted longer than expected, nearly two hours, with Mr. Biden discoursing on campaign strategy and a range of policy issues, and expressing admiration for a Sanders political operation that was waging an unexpectedly tough fight against Hillary Clinton. (Thrush, 3/15)

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert urged Americans on Sunday to hunker down as the U.S. scrambles to avoid an explosion of coronavirus cases that could kill hundreds of thousands, or even a million, people here. “I think Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” (McCaskill and Cancryn, 3/15)

The federal government’s leading voice on infectious diseases said Americans—particularly younger people—must help prevent community spread of the virus, urging them to stay home and avoid unnecessary public outings. “Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Dr. Fauci, appearing on all the major Sunday morning television shows, warned that it could be several weeks to a few months before life in the U.S. begins to return to normal. (Kendall, Day and Leary, 3/15)

“This recommendation is made in an attempt to reduce introduction of the virus into new communities and to slow the spread of infection in communities already affected by the virus,” the CDC said. The agency cited conferences, parades and weddings as examples of large gatherings. The guidance was issued shortly after Trump administration officials warned that the outbreak is likely to worsen over the next several weeks. The officials also announced plans for a series of new testing sites around the country in hopes of more quickly identifying and treating high-risk patients and health care workers — and alleviating pressure on hospital emergency departments. (Cancryn, 3/15)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday a response that looks like an “overreaction” can help keep the U.S. away from a worst-case scenario situation. “If you just leave the virus to its own defenses it’ll go way up like we’ve seen in Italy – that’s not going to happen if we do what we’re attempting to do and are doing,” Fauci told CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.” (Klar, 3/15)

The nation’s top infectious diseases expert has a stern warning to young people: Don’t get complacent about statistics showing serious coronavirus cases and fatalities are skewed toward the elderly and those with underlying health issues. “You are not immune or safe from getting seriously ill,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked if younger Americans should be concerned about contracting the virus, which Fauci has repeatedly said is more lethal than the average flu. (Oprysko, 3/15)

The U.S. has surpassed 2,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, although the actual number of those infected could be much larger because testing isn't yet widespread. At least 60 people have died in the U.S. because of complications from the virus. (Smith, 3/15)

If Dr. Anthony Fauci says it, you'd be smart to listen. As the coronavirus has upended daily life across the globe, Fauci has become the trusted voice in separating fact and fiction.The fear and confusion of outbreaks aren't new to Fauci, who in more than 30 years has handled HIV, SARS, MERS, Ebola and even the nation's 2001 experience with bioterrorism — the anthrax attacks. Fauci's political bosses — from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump — have let him do the explaining because he's frank and understandable, translating complex medical information into everyday language while neither exaggerating nor downplaying. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Neergaard, 3/14)

State officials and mayors critical of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic began imposing the most severe emergency measures to date on Sunday, with four governors effectively forcing restaurants, bars or other businesses to shut their doors. As the country braced for its first full week of widespread school and business closures, President Trump and other administration officials again gave mixed and sometimes confusing messages about the dangers ahead. At the White House, Trump told Americans to “relax” and stop panic-induced purchasing. (Miroff, Natanson, Bellware and Shaver, 3/16)

Officials across the country curtailed elements of American life to fight the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, with governors closing restaurants, bars, and schools and a government expert saying a 14-day national shutdown may be needed. At the same time, long airport lines for virus screenings raised doubts that the government is prepared to respond to the crisis. Parts of America already looks like a ghost town, and others are about to follow as theme parks closed, Florida beaches shooed away spring breakers, Starbucks said it will accept only drive-thru and takeout orders and the governors of Ohio and Illinois ordered bars and restaurants shuttered. New York City, New Jersey and elsewhere are considering similar measures. (Spencer and Crawford, 3/15)

The end of a weekend spent indoors, away from neighbors, friends, and communities of worship, will not bring relief to Americans Monday as they face a slew of new restrictions designed to curb the spread of coronavirus. Millions of students are out of school. Some restaurants are prohibited from inviting patrons inside. And public entertainment venues are becoming harder to come by. As US coronavirus cases have increased -- there are at least 3,485 cases and 65 fatalities -- so, too, have efforts to prevent future spread. (Holcombe, 3/16)

People around the world on Sunday were adjusting to a new reality of life during the coronavirus pandemic, as states and businesses restricted travel, closed shops and postponed religious services and other events. Governments have imposed a series of measures to limit gatherings of large numbers of people in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. It has now killed 6,065 people and infected more than 162,600, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, as the pandemic continues to spread into previously unaffected countries. (Yu, Ansari and Abbott, 3/15)

By Saturday, the country slid into a collective retreat from public life, as tens of millions of people settled in to wait—alone, together—for an invisible threat with no clear end in sight. Change came swiftly as new cases emerged and businesses and public officials pivoted, first assuring people of extra efforts to keep restaurants and shops clean, then abruptly shutting down stores and parties on a St. Patrick’s Day weekend that was almost balmy in the Northeast. Early Sunday morning, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted a picture of police cars with blue lights sweeping Bourbon Street, saying police will “enforce the ban on large gatherings all over the City.” It was hours after New Orleans reported its first death from the virus. (O'Brien and Bauerlein, 3/15)

Millions of Americans braced for the week ahead with no school for their children for many days to come, no clue how to effectively do their jobs without child care, and a growing sense of dread about how to stay safe and sane amid the relentless spread of the coronavirus. Are play dates for the kids OK? How do you stock up on supplies when supermarket shelves are bare? How do you pay the bills when your work hours have been cut? Is it safe to go to the gym? And how do you plan for the future with no idea what it holds? (3/14)

It often feels as if the world is shrinking, that almost all of us are interconnected, our disparate cultures linked by things from Internet memes to the latest Netflix film. But in generations nothing has so bound the world together as the coronavirus pandemic. It quickly has become a common language: the fear, the helplessness, the unnerving empty streets and vacant parks and shuttered schools. (McIntyre, Maraviglia, Trinca, Chung, Kalifa and Fukada, 3/13)

They were told not to go to their schools or offices. Concerns about long lines and shortages had discouraged them from going shopping. They could not visit libraries or museums; no concerts or shows were being held. There were no sporting events on TV, and only so many times that they could watch “Love Is Blind.” So, during an anxious weekend when the coronavirus outbreak had forced the closure of many cultural institutions and the cancellation of countless events, some Americans did what they still could to take their minds off the widespread uncertainty: They went to the movies. (Itzkoff, 3/15)

Governors and local leaders are furiously working to convince the public to heed social distancing guidance, with a cascade of increasingly stringent limitations raining down in California, Illinois and Ohio on Sunday. But the moves are clashing with the millions of Americans disinterested in upending their way of life — some of whom are flaunting public health guidance with the support of prominent public officials. (Hutchins, 3/15)

A neighborhood in Austin, as the nation’s coronavirus case count ticks into the thousands: There’s an hour-long wait for a table at 9 p.m., parking’s a bear, and the sidewalks teem with cuddling couples and loud groups of young partyers. A similar neighborhood in Northern Virginia: One of the toughest tables for miles around, Mama Chang, is nearly empty. In downtown Washington, many parking spaces are wide open on blocks drivers often circle in vain. At a nearby pharmacy counter, the chatty clerk, who usually spends the day exchanging horror stories about the president with his like-minded customers, says no one wants to talk — not politics, not sports, nothing. (Gowen, Hernandez and Fisher, 3/14)

On Saturday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter to ask his followers to heed the advice of public health officials and politicians on the other side of the aisle: “If you can stay home, stay home,” the Texas Republican wrote. “And wash your hands.” Hours later, the Republican governor of Oklahoma tweeted from a packed restaurant in Oklahoma City showing that he is performatively not doing this. “Eating with my kids and all my fellow Oklahomans at the @CollectiveOKC. It’s packed tonight! #supportlocal #OklaProud” He deleted the tweet an hour later. (Ornstein, 3/15)

Facing mounting pressure, New York City officials announced on Sunday a sweeping shutdown of tens of thousands of bars and restaurants, and the closure of the city’s public school system — the largest in the nation — in an effort to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. From California to Washington, D.C., governors and mayors are grappling with how far government should go in constricting people’s daily lives to keep them home. (Ferre-Sadurni, 3/15)

"The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. "We have to break that cycle." Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday night that he was also ordering gyms closed, too. Both mayors said they were not making their decisions lightly. (3/16)

New York City will close the nation's largest public school system on Monday, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus, the city's mayor announced Sunday, calling it a “very troubling moment.” A somber Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the decision to close schools through at least April 20 and possibly for the school year, following a growing number of school closures in communities and entire states nationwide and mounting pressure in New York from residents, City Council members and others. (3/15)

New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest with 1.1 million students, will begin to largely shut down this week, in what is the city’s most aggressive and disruptive effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “I’m very, very concerned that we see a rapid spread of this disease, and it’s time to take more dramatic measures,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Sunday afternoon. “This is a decision I have taken with no joy and a lot of pain.” (3/15)

New York City will close the nation's largest public school system on Monday, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus, the city's mayor announced Sunday, calling it a “very troubling moment.” A somber Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the decision to close schools through at least April 20 and possibly for the school year, following a growing number of school closures in communities and entire states nationwide and mounting pressure in New York from residents, City Council members and others. (3/15)

Both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio have resisted calls to shutter schools for weeks, warning that forcing health care workers to stay home and supervise their children would cause a drag on a hospital system already bracing for an overwhelming influx of patients. That calculation changed Sunday afternoon after the health care workers’ biggest union, 1199 SEIU, changed its position to voice support for closing schools. Cuomo said Sunday afternoon he wanted the schools in the city — as well as in Westchester and on Long Island — to close, and de Blasio described the immediate steps the city was taking during a City Hall press conference. (Eisenberg and Toure, 3/15)

Classrooms will be empty from coast to coast in the coming weeks as the novel coronavirus spreads and officials say indefinite closures are a real possibility. When speaking about coronavirus-related closures, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio have said students may stay home for the rest of the school year. It would be "extraordinary painful for our kids, our parents, our educators and for so many people," de Blasio said. "I have no words for how horrible it is but it's become necessary." (Chavez, 3/16)

New York state has 729 confirmed cases of the virus, including 329 in New York City, which is more than any other state, according to state officials. The city has recorded five virus-related deaths, Mr. de Blasio said Sunday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday restricted most gatherings of more than 500 people and limited businesses to half their legal occupancy. Mr. Cuomo on Sunday said that in the coming weeks he expects the state’s hospital system to be overwhelmed. (Berger and Honan, 3/15)

New York reported its first two coronavirus deaths Saturday, as the state faced a growing crisis that has left hospitals worried about a lack of beds, partially closed the State Capitol, put dozens of city firefighters in quarantine, raised pressure to shut schools and prompted the cancellation of Catholic church services. As of Saturday evening, the state had 613 cases of coronavirus, with more than 100 people hospitalized, state officials said. At least 183 of those cases are in the five boroughs, city officials said. (West and Vielkind, 3/14)

Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Sunday announced he would sign an executive order limiting all New York City bars and restaurants to delivery and takeout as well as requiring many entertainment venues to temporarily shut down as the city tries to halt the spread of the coronavirus. "The virus can spread rapidly through the close interactions New Yorkers have in restaurants, bars and places where we sit close together. We have to break that cycle. Tomorrow, I will sign an Executive Order limiting restaurants, bars and cafes to food take-out and delivery," de Blasio said in a statement on Twitter. (Conradis, 3/15)

The coronavirus crisis lurched into a new phase Friday as President Trump laid out a national emergency plan to free up billions of aid dollars and ramp up testing, San Francisco banned nonessential gatherings of more than 100 people, and campuses and courthouses closed in droves all over California. San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s order Friday toughening the prohibition on large gatherings hammered home in an economically and emotionally painful fashion the gravity of the pandemic. (Fracassa and Fagan, 3/13)

[California Gov. Gavin Newsom's] office said his request for the elderly to remain at home also extended to residents with underlying health issues, such as blood disorders, chronic kidney disease, asthma, chronic liver disease, compromised immune systems, pregnancies in the last two weeks, metabolic disorders, heart disease and other conditions that make them more susceptible to serious illness from the coronavirus. (Willon, Myers, Luna and Chabria, 3/15)

Gov. Gavin Newsom called Sunday for all senior citizens and residents with chronic conditions to isolate themselves at home, as well as for all bars, wineries and brewpubs to close, launching the state's most sweeping effort yet to slow the spread of coronavirus. No other state has imposed such restrictions on residents age 65 and older. Newsom said his orders do not come with enforcement but that he expects residents and counties to follow his protocols. California has 5.3 million residents over the age of 65. (Hart, Marinucci and White, 3/15)

As public health officials scramble to manage the spread of the novel coronavirus, strategies are starting to be implemented across California and the rest of the country to protect the homeless population. On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that homeless people would be prioritized as a vulnerable population. Though he offered few details, he said there would be a massive attempt to move people off the streets and into indoor settings, including hotels and motels purchased in recent days and 450 state-owned trailers that will be deployed throughout California. (Curwen, Oreskes and Chabria, 3/15)

Representative Devin Nunes, a California Republican, on Sunday encouraged healthy people to dine out at restaurants, contradicting public health advisories that strongly encouraged social distancing and discouraged Americans from attending mass gatherings. In an appearance on Fox News, Mr. Nunes said Americans should stop fighting over groceries and toilet paper. ... Public health experts, however, are urging just the opposite: Stay home if you can. (Padilla and Montague, 3/15)

Kaiser Health News: The High Cost Of Being Trump’s Enemy

President Donald Trump makes his disdain for California clear, lashing out at the Golden State as a “filthy dirty” and “horrible” outpost cursed by homelessness and wildfires. California, in turn, has challenged the Trump administration dozens of times on issues such as auto emissions, immigration and union dues. But it’s not cheap being one of Trump’s favorite enemies. And nowhere is that more apparent than in health care. (Bluth, 3/16)

Los Angeles is following other major cities in the U.S. by shutting down bars, clubs and entertainment venues and implementing restrictions on restaurants as the country grapples with the spread of the coronavirus. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Sunday night he was taking executive action that would temporarily close bars, clubs, entertainment venues and other establishments in the city starting at midnight. He added that restaurants would not be allowed to provide in-house dining but could continue serving takeout and deliveries. (Conradis, 3/15)

Federal officials are moving ahead with plans to address the screaming shortage of testing for the coronavirus by setting up many more drive-through testing centers around the country and speeding the capability of commercial laboratories to process multiple samples at once. Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a White House briefing with Vice President Mike Pence that starting on Monday, 2,000 commercial labs would begin to perform coronavirus tests using high-speed machines that can process many samples at once. Those labs are expected to add somewhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tests a week to the nation’s capacity, and 1.9 million tests should be available by the end of the week, Admiral Giroir said. (Grady, 3/15)

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promised on Sunday that Americans would have access in the days ahead to more than 2,000 laboratories capable of processing coronavirus tests, and a leading expert said the country would launch a new phase of testing for the fast-spreading disease. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Pence also said he and President Donald Trump would brief U.S. state governors on Monday on the widening testing amid a fast-escalating global health crisis. (3/15)

At a news conference, Vice President Pence and federal health officials said the first people allowed to use drive-through testing will be health-care workers and first responders, as well as people over 65 who have symptoms consistent with the virus, such as a cough. The officials did not explain exactly where or in how many states the drive-through tests would begin, other than to say it would be in hard-hit areas. And they backed away from an announcement by Trump on Friday that Google was on the verge of releasing a website through which any American could type in symptoms and learn whether they warranted a test. (Goldstein and McGinley, 3/15)

Friday morning a ray of light cracked through the ominous cloud of the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus: The Swiss health care giant Roche introduced a new test for the virus that could be run more efficiently and with less manpower than existing diagnostics, potentially doubling the capacity in the U.S. to detect the virus. But the news only emphasizes the degree to which one of the world’s great technological powers, the leading country in generating new biotechnologies and medical advances, has stumbled to test patients when other nations, including most of Europe, China, and in particular South Korea, have been able to do so much more efficiently. (Herper, 3/13)

The Food and Drug Administration announced it had approved the first rounds of high-volume testing, as well as allowing New York state to authorize labs to expand testing on their own. The Trump administration also appointed an official to take charge of coordinating testing among health agencies. The moves come after ample warnings this week, including from a top administration health official, that testing has so far been inadequate and that shortage of medical supplies may be looming. The virus’s spread has quickly emerged as a defining test of Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump has begun to pivot from downplaying the virus -- pledging the caseload would fall, only to see it jump sharply -- to pledging more would be done, amid warning signs. Trump announced new travel restrictions this week after a raucous debate among aides. (Wingrove and Webber, 3/13)

The federal government's effort to rapidly expand testing for the coronavirus will initially focus on screening health care workers and the elderly, Trump administration officials said Sunday. Broad-scale testing is a critical part of tracking and containing pandemics. But the U.S. effort has been hobbled by a series of missteps, including flaws with the testing kits first distributed by the federal government and bureaucratic hurdles that held up testing by private laboratories. (Perrone, 3/15)

The slow roll-out of testing for the coronavirus has prompted a more hospitals to develop their own diagnostic capabilities, which they say offers them the best chance to mitigate the impact of the outbreak. Delays in widespread testing began several weeks ago when the first kits developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were found to have a faulty compound that caused inaccurate results. (Johnson, 3/13)

In the aftermath of a 2015 outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that killed 38 people and cratered the economy, South Korea took a hard look at what had gone wrong. Among the findings: A lack of tests had prompted people ill with the disease to traipse from hospital to hospital in search of confirmation that they had MERS, a coronavirus far more virulent than the one that causes COVID-19. Nearly half the people who got the disease were exposed at hospitals. (Engelberg, Song and DePillis, 3/15)

On an overcast day in Seattle, a few dozen medical staff members, students and emergency workers with symptoms of the fast-spreading coronavirus spent their lunch break driving to a parking garage. The UW Medicine’s Medical Center Northwest has turned part of the first floor of their four-story parking garage into a mobile testing clinic. Think fast-food drive-through, but instead of getting served a juicy burger, nurses come to take a nasal swab. In about a day, patients find out whether they have the coronavirus. (Yan, 3/13)

Kaiser Health News: Testing Shortages Force Extreme Shift In Strategy By Local Health Officials

Public health officials in California’s state capital region announced this week they have stopped tracing the contacts of patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. They’ve also ceased recommending quarantines for residents exposed to people confirmed to have the virus. It was a grim recognition of the virus’ infiltration — and is yet another sign of the detrimental effects of a lack of capability in the U.S. to test people for the deadly coronavirus as it continues to spread. (Gold and Barry-Jester, 3/13)

A Chinese citizen living in Massachusetts became ill this month, with symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. She went to a local hospital and asked to be tested three times, but was denied. Frustrated, she flew to China — and tested positive upon arrival. According to Chinese officials, who provided the details, she is one of the nation’s 114 imported coronavirus cases, the newest concern for the country where the coronavirus global pandemic began. (Su, 3/15)

Kaiser Health News: Looking For Answers After Coronavirus Contact? Welcome To The Gray Zone

Liz Lucas got a call Tuesday afternoon from a friend she’d interacted with closely at a journalism conference in New Orleans days earlier who had tested presumptively positive for coronavirus. She wondered what this meant for her and those around her, so she reached out to local and state health officials in Missouri for guidance. But like many others across the nation with similar concerns, she didn’t get the answers she sought and had to decide for herself what to do. (Ungar, 3/13)

Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized what appear to be fake novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, tests at the Los Angeles International Airport, the agency said Saturday. The package had come from the United Kingdom on Thursday and contained various vials that manifested as pure water, but upon inspection contained white liquid and were labeled "Corona Virus 2019nconv (COVID-19)” and “Virus1 Test Kit," according to a statement from CBP. (Torres, 3/14)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has deployed the National Guard and created a one-mile containment zone around the town of New Rochelle, just north of New York City, where at least 158 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. And on Friday, the state launched its first drive-thru mobile testing facility in the region. (Booker, Weber and Fong, 3/14)

Kaiser Health News: How Intrepid Lab Sleuths Ramped Up Tests As Coronavirus Closed In

While officials in Washington, D.C., grappled with delays and red tape, two professional virus hunters raced to make thousands of tests available to detect the deadly new coronavirus sweeping the globe, hoping to stem its spread in the U.S. Dr. Keith Jerome, 56, and Dr. Alex Greninger, 38, of the esteemed University of Washington School of Medicine, have overseen the rollout of more than 4,000 tests, painstaking work that has confirmed the infection in hundreds of patients across the nation. (Aleccia, 3/16)

For weeks now, America’s leaders and its public have been obsessed with one set of numbers: How many people have died? How many confirmed cases? And in what states? But to understand why experts are so alarmed and what may be coming next, the public needs to start paying attention to a whole other set of numbers: How many ventilators do we have in this country? How many hospital beds? How many doctors and nurses? And most importantly, how many sick people can they all treat at the same time? (Wan, Cha and Sun, 3/13)

Government and hospital leaders are increasingly sounding the alarm about the health care system in the U.S. and its readiness to absorb waves of patients in the worst-case scenario involving the new coronavirus outbreak.Authorities nationwide already are taking major steps to expand capacity with each passing day, building tents and outfitting unused spaces to house patients. They also are urging people to postpone elective surgeries, dental work and even veterinarian care. New York's governor called for using military bases or college dorms as makeshift care centers. (Sewer, 3/15)

One concern about the impact of COVID-19 on providers is ICU capacity. Modern Healthcare has created an estimate of hospital beds for acute-care, critical-access and children's hospitals by state. Please note that the data comes from Medicare cost reports, which are self-reported by the hospitals or system, for fiscal year 2017, the last year for which the most complete data is available. (Broderick, 3/13)

In the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors made life-or-death decisions last month when 1,000 people needed ventilators to support their breathing, but only 600 were available. In Iran, where numerous high-level officials have been infected, doctors sought unsuccessfully to get the international community to lift sanctions so they could purchase more lifesaving machines. And in northern Italy, doctors took the painful step last week of issuing guidelines for rationing ventilators and other essential medical equipment, prioritizing treatment for the young and others with the best chance of survival. Such tough choices could well be ahead for the United States, a nation with limited hospital capacity and grim epidemiological projections estimating that as many as 40 to 60 percent of the country’s population of 327 million could eventually become infected. (Cha, 3/15)

The U.S. government maintains an enormous stockpile of emergency medical supplies, and officials have already started dipping into it to help fight the novel coronavirus. But while having a stockpile is better than not having it, experts say, there's a limit to what a stockpile can do in this crisis. "It's never going to be as big as you want, because it's just too expensive to do that," says Tara O'Toole, a former homeland security official who is now executive vice president at a nonprofit called In-Q-Tel. (Greenfieldboyce, 3/14)

The Department of Veterans Affairs, legally designated as the backup health care system in national emergencies, is preparing to absorb the overflow of coronavirus patients from private hospitals if — or when — they become strained to the breaking point. It would be the biggest test the sprawling and sometimes troubled government hospital system has faced. The department is experienced in managing an older and vulnerable population, and in many ways, it could be better prepared than the rest of the health care system to take on the task. It has a surplus of beds in many of its 172 hospital centers and a robust number of special rooms for patients with breathing disorders. Leaders at the agency say they have a surplus of supplies that they have been ordering since the beginning of the year. (Steinhauer, 3/15)

Health care and consumer industry groups and even federal agencies have been sounding the alarm that the US may face major problems in keeping basic medical, food and retail supplies available during the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, the group representing food and retail companies like Clorox, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo told the State Department and the US Trade Representative they fear other countries cutting off exports to the US, which could exacerbate the public health emergency. (Polantz, 3/15)

"The coronavirus, like many respiratory viruses, can cause inflammation in the lungs," explains Dr. William Graham Carlos a pulmonary critical care specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine "And when the lungs become inflamed, the membranes that transfer oxygen from the air into the blood become blocked. "When patients develop this type of viral pneumonia, they often require bedside ventilators which, Carlos says "can supply higher levels of oxygen and also help push air into the lungs to open them up, and afford more opportunity to get oxygen into the patient." (Neighmond, 3/14)

Europe’s first cases of the novel coronavirus sparked a rush for face masks. Now, with hundreds dying every day, governments are racing to stock up on ventilators, a crucial piece of medical equipment needed to save patients with acute instances of the disease it causes. For the handful of companies that manufacture such devices, this has meant working overtime to satisfy a demand peak none of them have ever experienced. The German government last week ordered 10,000 ventilators from Drägerwerk AG, the company’s biggest contract ever, worth roughly a year’s production, according to a company spokesman. (Bender and Lotfus, 3/15)

Two emergency medicine doctors, in New Jersey and Washington State, are in critical condition as a result of coronavirus, reinforcing concerns that the nation’s front-line medical workers are becoming especially vulnerable to the virus, the American College of Emergency Physicians said. “A lot of us think that despite everything we do, we will probably be exposed,” said Dr. William Jaquis, the chair of the group. Still, he said, “The first reported case certainly sends a shock wave through the community.” (Weise, 3/15)

After the first confirmed coronavirus case on U.S. soil, 800 miles to his north, the chief of a Northern California fire department gathered his executive team in mid-February to prepare for the inevitable landing of the virus in his community. They planned to screen patients carefully and have their first responders gear up in gowns, masks and goggles if they believed one could be infected. Yet even though the outbreak was already spreading nationwide, Rocklin Fire Department Chief William Hack decided to hold off on putting the high-level response into action until the first case showed up in the county. (Allen, Sanders, Sapien and Churchill, 3/13)

Just before 1 p.m. on Friday, Son Jae-son marched to his local pharmacy, seeking a prized item in South Korea: his weekly ration of two face masks. South Korean health officials have urged all citizens, even healthy ones like Mr. Son, to wear filtered masks, causing the product to disappear from shelves. With his extended family down to just a handful of masks, Mr. Son’s heart sank when he saw that the drug store—which had posted a sign saying it would have fresh inventory at 1 p.m.—had already attracted a sizable line. Minutes later the stock ran out. He left empty handed. (Jeong, 3/15)

Two emergency medicine doctors, in New Jersey and Washington State, are in critical condition as a result of coronavirus, reinforcing concerns that the nation’s front-line medical workers are becoming especially vulnerable to the virus, the American College of Emergency Physicians said. “A lot of us think that despite everything we do, we will probably be exposed,” said Dr. William Jaquis, the chair of the group. Still, he said, “The first reported case certainly sends a shock wave through the community.” (Weise, 3/15)

If the Federal Reserve’s surprise Sunday evening announcement of sweeping efforts to guard the economy from coronavirus reminded you of the 2008 global financial crisis, you’re not alone. In that episode, policymakers’ tendency to make surprise weekend announcements became a running joke. But the similarities between the Fed then and now go deeper than the timing of news conferences. (Irwin, 3/15)

Brandishing an array of financial weapons, the Federal Reserve announced extraordinary action Sunday to try to blunt the heavy damage the coronavirus outbreak has begun to inflict on the U.S. economy. It's slashing its benchmark interest rate to near zero. It’s buying $700 billion in bonds. It’s moving aggressively to smooth disruptions in the Treasury market. And it's prepared to do more. (Rugaber, 3/16)

The coordinated global actions were reminiscent of the sweeping steps taken just over a decade ago to fight a meltdown of the global financial system, but this time the target was an entirely unfamiliar foe - a fast-spreading health crisis with no certain end in sight that is forcing entire societies to effectively shut down. In a news conference Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the epidemic was having a "profound" impact on the economy, forcing whole industries like travel and leisure offline. Yet the ultimate spread of the virus is so uncertain, Powell said, the Fed called off quarterly economic forecasts due this week as a futile exercise until it is clear how many people will get sick, and how long public gatherings will need to be discouraged in the name of public health. (3/15)

The Fed, led by Chair Jerome H. Powell, effectively cut its benchmark by a full percentage point to zero. The benchmark U.S. interest rate is now in a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, down from a range of 1 to 1.25 percent. In addition to rate cuts, the Fed announced it is restarting the crisis-era program of bond purchases known as “quantitative easing,” in which the central bank buys hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds to further push down rates and keep markets flowing freely. The Fed is also giving more-generous loans to banks around the country so they can turn around and offer loans to small businesses and families in need of a lifeline. (Long, 3/15)

The coronavirus outbreak has harmed communities and disrupted economic activity in many countries, including the United States. Global financial conditions have also been significantly affected. Available economic data show that the U.S. economy came into this challenging period on a strong footing. Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January indicates that the labor market remained strong through February and economic activity rose at a moderate rate. Job gains have been solid, on average, in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low. Although household spending rose at a moderate pace, business fixed investment and exports remained weak. More recently, the energy sector has come under stress. On a 12‑month basis, overall inflation and inflation for items other than food and energy are running below 2 percent. Market-based measures of inflation compensation have declined; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations are little changed. (3/15)

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Federal Reserve's decision on Sunday to cut interest rates was "good news" and "makes me very happy" as he congratulated the central bank for taking further action aimed at helping shore up the U.S. economy amid the global coronavirus pandemic. "It's really good news. It's great for the country," Trump, who had publicly pressed the Fed to slash rates to boost the economy during the fast-escalating coronavirus outbreak, told a White House news conference. (3/16)

U.S. equity futures and global stocks tumbled after the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero, a sign that investors remain worried that the new coronavirus will fuel a recession even with borrowing costs dropping. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each slid nearly 5% Monday. Trading limits prevent futures from losing more than about 5% in out-of-hours trading. (Hirtenstein and Ping, 3/16)

A global scramble for U.S. dollar financing worsened on Monday as the Federal Reserve's aggressive move to flood markets with cash failed to temper borrowing costs and unclog funding for companies and banks hit by the coronavirus outbreak. The Fed slashed interest rates on Sunday, with central banks in New Zealand, Australia and Japan also cutting rates and pumping massive amounts of stimulus into battered markets. Other central banks also expanded stimulus last week. (3/16)

The U.S. Federal Reserve and its global counterparts moved aggressively with sweeping emergency rate cuts and offers of cheap dollars in a bid to combat the coronavirus pandemic that has roiled markets and paralyzed large parts of the world economy. The coordinated response from the Fed to the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) were reminiscent of the steps taken just over a decade ago in the wake of the financial crisis. (3/16)

As Americans brace for the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus across the U.S., once-booming industries are already suffering from deadly symptoms of an economic downturn. Consumers, after panic-buying, are expected to hunker down and limit their spending. Sporting events, concerts and other entertainment are now suspended. Businesses are canceling travel and conferences. Airlines and trains are slashing schedules. (Ward, 3/14)

Despite forecasting an economic slowdown, the president's top economic adviser said on ABC's "This Week" that he did not think the novel coronavirus pandemic would cause a recession. Responding to ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl on whether there will be a recession, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "I don't think so. The real issue is not the economic situation today. … This is a unique situation. We are going to have a slowdown. Later in the year economic activity will pick up as we confront this virus." (Arnholz, 3/15)

The rapidly spreading coronavirus has reached every corner of the U.S. economy, upending the jobs of Seattle taxi drivers, Texas oil workers and Wall Street traders—and nearly everyone in between. The virulent invader, which swept through Asia and Europe, is leading many U.S. businesses to hoard cash, pare spending and rethink how they operate without knowing how long the troubles will last. Some that lost business may never get that revenue back. Thinner profit margins and a focus on cost cutting mean some firms may lose key workers, vendors and the ability to invest for the future. (Gryta and Maloney, 3/15)

Small-business confidence plunged in March to near its lowest levels in the past seven years, as business owners grappled with the effects of the novel coronavirus on their companies and the broader economy. Owners of businesses from restaurants and yoga studios to marketing and manufacturing firms are already making tough choices, as the fallout spreads from industries dependent on Chinese manufacturers to the broader U.S. economy. (Simon, 3/15)

As the coronavirus spreads across the globe, it appears to be setting off a devastating feedback loop with another of the gravest forces of our time: economic inequality. In societies where the virus hits, it is deepening the consequences of inequality, pushing many of the burdens onto the losers of today’s polarized economies and labor markets. Research suggests that those in lower economic strata are likelier to catch the disease. They are also likelier to die from it. And, even for those who remain healthy, they are likelier to suffer loss of income or health care as a result of quarantines and other measures, potentially on a sweeping scale. (Fisher and Bubola, 3/15)

Most of the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees will report to work Monday to tightly packed office cubicles and other workplaces where they serve the public, even as schools and colleges across the country have closed, businesses have sent their staffs home to work and governors have canceled public activities to limit the spread of the coronavirus. (Rein, Duncan and Jan, 3/15)

As the coronavirus outbreak continues across the U.S., the White House has told federal agencies and executive departments to suspend all work travel unless it is absolutely necessary. The White House Office of Management and Budget issued new guidance on Saturday telling federal workers that "only mission-critical travel is recommended at this time." (Davis, 3/15)

The emergency declaration, in conjunction with the administration's prior designation of COVID-19 as a public health emergency on January 31, frees up to $50 billion in federal disaster relief funding, Trump said, and provides the HHS secretary with more authority to waive some Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) requirements. (Cohrs, 3/13)

Every state in the United States — and virtually every country in the world — has laws conferring this legal authority. They're some of the oldest on the books, stemming from the plagues of past centuries that devastated Europe and were reworked again after the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic and the more recent Ebola outbreak. "There's no question that states have very broad powers to do rather extraordinary things in public health emergencies," professor Wendy Parmet, an expert on public health law at Northeastern University, says. (Williams, 3/13)

Trump declared an emergency under the Stafford Act, the same 1988 law presidents use to declare disaster areas after storms and other natural disasters. That frees up billions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to confront the coronavirus. Trump said about $50 billion is available (other estimates, including one from the White House after the president spoke, have pegged the figure at closer to $40 billion). "This pandemic has the potential to cause severe consequences for our country's national and economic security," the president wrote in a letter announcing the decision late Friday. "It is therefore critical that we deploy all powers and authorities available to the federal government to provide needed relief." (Fritze, 3/13)

The administration is also directing nursing homes to temporarily restrict visitors and nonessential personnel with a few exceptions, such as end-of-life situations, said Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at the press conference. “We fully appreciate that this measure represents a severe trial for residents of nursing homes and those who love them. But we are doing what we must to protect our vulnerable elderly,” said Verma. (Lim and McLeod, 3/13)

The national emergency declaration President Donald Trump delivered today increases states’ authority to help low-income residents get testing and treatment for the new coronavirus. Trump’s declaration signals to governors that they can now apply to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for exemptions from some of the regulations governing Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. If those requests are granted, it could help governors address the crisis in a variety of ways. (Ollove, 3/13)

The aisles and aisles of empty store shelves give the appearance that the United States, improbably and alarmingly, is running out of food. But the nation’s biggest retailers, dairy farmers and meat producers say that isn’t so. The food supply chain, they say, remains intact and has been ramping up to meet the unprecedented stockpiling brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, shoppers can most likely expect to see empty shelves intermittently, as the nation’s network of food producers, distributors and retailers are stretched as never before. Industries that are calibrated to supply consumers with just enough of what they need on a given day cannot keep up with a nationwide surge of relentless shopping fueled in large part by fear. (Corkery, Yaffe-Bellany, Nierenberg and Bui, 3/15)

The White House on Sunday urged Americans against "hoarding" as thousands flocked to supermarkets to stock up on essentials, saying U.S. supply chains were strong and federal and local leaders were working together to ensure food supplies are available. President Donald Trump held a phone call with more than two dozen grocery store and supply chain executives from across the country, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. (3/15)

He claimed there are “no shortages” at stores but people are “buying three-to-five times what they normally buy.” On the call with top grocers, food manufacturers and agribusinesses, Trump said stores can help Americans “feel calm and safe when shelves are stocked with the items they need” amid the outbreak, according to a readout provided by the White House. Leslie Sarasin, president of FMI, the food industry association formerly known as the Food Marketing Institute, said the administration and industry are on the same page about making sure that “stores can stay open and stocked." (McCrimmon, 3/15)

U.S. grocers are adjusting their operations to try to keep up with customers who are emptying their shelves amid angst over the new coronavirus, even as their own employees face heightened risk of infection. Across the country, lines to get into stores snaked around corners, checkout times stretched as long as an hour and whole aisles were rendered bare this week as companies told more workers to stay home and schools began to cancel classes. (Kang and Gasparro, 3/15)

Stores are racing to replenish depleted shelves and to calm shoppers anxiously preparing for coronavirus disruptions, but they are having trouble meeting the heightened demand. "Hand sanitizer is going to be very difficult to have 100 percent on stock on for some time," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said at a White House news conference Friday. "We're still replenishing it and shipping it, but as soon as it hits the stores, it's going." (Popken, 3/15)

In Union, New Jersey, a Target opened at 8 a.m. and had sold out of its full stock of milk and bottled water five minutes later. In Austin, Texas, some gas station pumps ran dry. Not a bottle of bleach could be found at a Home Depot in Fairfax, Virginia. As dawn broke across the United States on Saturday, thousands of shoppers lined up outside supermarkets and grocery stores before they opened, eager for a chance to buy essentials that have flown off shelves as the country hunkers down to slow the spread of coronavirus. (3/15)

Curt La Haise has put up with plenty of razzing from friends over the years who have called him paranoid for stockpiling an eight-month supply of food in his basement and having enough fuel to power his generator for almost an entire winter. They're not laughing anymore amid panic buying that has cleared store shelves across the U.S. and growing fears that the new coronavirus will force many Americans to self-quarantine for weeks in their homes. (Seewer, 3/15)

Behavioral experts looked at the panic-buying that swept through metro Atlanta in recent days and were not appalled or shocked. The rush of consumers to markets, the long lines, the shelves emptied of staples, the anxious expressions – all were very human, even sensible reactions to a noxious mix of danger, uncertainty and chaos. (Kanell, 3/14)

David Stone snagged a cardboard box of .223-caliber ammunition from the shelf and slid it across the glass countertop, offering his go-to sales pitch: “Welcome to the biggest selection of ammunition in all of Oklahoma.” “I’m not sure I can keep on saying that,” Stone said, explaining that the supply of goods at Dong’s Guns, Ammo and Reloading has been seriously depleted over the last few days. (Lee and Chabria, 3/15)

Amazon warned of delayed deliveries and items going out of stock as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. The online retailer said the increase in people shopping online is having a short-term impact on how it serves customers. “In particular, you will notice that we are currently out of stock on some popular brands and items, especially in household staples categories,” Amazon said in a blog post updated Saturday. (Klar, 3/15)

From disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker in Missouri to a convenience store operator in New Jersey, suspected fraudsters are trying to take advantage of the coronavirus panic to trick consumers into buying useless or harmful products, triggering state anti-gouging laws and anti-fraud efforts by state attorneys general. (Povitch, 3/13)

A Tennessee man who became a subject of national scorn after stockpiling 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer donated all of the supplies on Sunday just as the Tennessee attorney general’s office began investigating him for price gouging. On Sunday morning, Matt Colvin, an Amazon seller outside Chattanooga, Tenn., helped volunteers from a local church load two-thirds of his stockpile of hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes into a box truck for the church to distribute to people in need across Tennessee. (Nicas, 3/15)

The House passed an emergency relief package Saturday to address the sweeping effects of the coronavirus and cushion the economic blow to the most vulnerable Americans. The legislation includes a series of measures intended to bolster the safety net for families and workers whose livelihoods and health are affected by the virus. With President Trump weighing in late to voice his approval, the Senate is expected to take up the package and could pass it as early as next week. (Cochrane and Tankersley, 3/14)

To reach a deal on coronavirus legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Trump tried their own form of social distancing. With the nation bracing for the coronavirus pandemic, the two sides negotiated a deal that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support early Saturday morning, designed to provide an economic safety net for households affected by the outbreak. The California Democrat worked closely with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the administration’s point man, with the two talking dozens of times in the past week. She and Mr. Trump didn’t speak at all. (Andrews, 3/15)

The White House budget office will send Congress another funding request that would potentially bolster the Pentagon, the VA and Homeland Security as federal agencies work to contain the coronavirus outbreak, an administration official told POLITICO on Sunday night. The Office of Management and Budget plans to ask Congress for the funds sometime mid-week, said the official, who could not provide a dollar estimate or detail specific agency needs, citing the early nature of the discussions. The official did note that the request will focus on meeting the operational needs of agencies on the front lines of the response. (Emma, 3/15)

Lobbyists for drone makers and hog farmers — not to mention the oil and gas industry, among others — are looking to hitch a ride on the federal government’s coronavirus response. The deluge of “asks,” as K Street refers to such pleas, include policies that might help address the crisis and revive the economy. But other proposals are similar to ones the same industries have pushed for years and have only a tenuous connection to the pandemic. (Meyer, 3/16)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Sunday that discussions were already underway about additional coronavirus legislation beyond a second package that passed the House this weekend. McConnell, in a statement, said he had spoken to several GOP committee chairmen "about the next steps," including helping Americans with financial challenges, efforts to shore up the economy and small business and bolstering the healthcare system. (Carney, 3/15)

Since the end of the Great Recession, experts warned policymakers that excessive deficits and low interest rates could make it difficult for the government to address the next economic crisis. The coronavirus pandemic is proving them right, and pointing to a precarious road ahead for the nation’s finances. The deficit for the first five months of the fiscal year already stands at $625 billion, well ahead of last year’s pace, when the deficit stood at $544 billion from October through February. (Elis, 3/15)

Just two weeks after President Donald Trump rallied conservatives to focus on the threat of socialism, his followers are splintering over the coronavirus pandemic. On one side are those like Bill Mitchell, who dismiss it as nothing worse than the flu, and the drive to eradicate it as “climate change 2.0” — as in, a media-lefty mass hysteria. On the other side are pro-Trump fixtures like Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller, who had been sounding the alarms on the coronavirus since January, and are calling for harsher lockdowns and urging social distancing. (Nguyen, 3/18)

Americans normally hear from President Donald Trump when he is opining on Twitter, riffing from a rally stage or otherwise improvising. This past week was different as he sat in the Oval Office with a script laid out for him to read on a matter grave enough for a prime-time address to the nation. He addressed the coronavirus crisis that is spreading germs and fear. But his words were as factually fraught as many of his tweets. (3/16)

Mar-a-Lago, the crown jewel of President Donald Trump’s real estate empire, has been his refuge and sanctuary throughout his time in office. Unlike in Washington, where the president is mostly cloistered inside the White House and interacts with a constant stream of aides and lawmakers, he gets to rub elbows and hobnob with his friends and other glitterati at his Palm Beach estate — showing off a real estate beauty to other elites. (McGraw, 3/15)

In the course of a few weeks, President Donald Trump veered from confidently assuring Americans his administration had the coronavirus outbreak “very well under control” to declaring a national emergency and tweeting ALL CAPS caution about the pandemic that has upended every facet of American life. Trump meandered from denial to grudging acceptance, and in his words, he seeded conflicting, inaccurate and eyebrow-raising commentary to a country desperate for unvarnished, even shock-to-the-system guidance.Throughout the global coronavirus crisis, Trump’s statements have been colored by baseless optimism. Sometimes, his commentary has been flatly wrong. Frequently, it’s been amplified by aides and allies with the help of conservative media. (3/15)

America's top infectious diseases expert is warning that hundreds of thousands of Americans could die unless every citizen joins an effort to blunt the coronavirus pandemic -- only to be contradicted by President Donald Trump, who insists the virus is under "tremendous" control. The fresh sign of Trump's unwillingness to accept the full, sobering reality of the outbreak came as an anxious America knuckles down to its new self-isolating reality. The country is bracing for the full fury of the virus that is already escalating sharply and is set to subject the foundations of basic life — the nation's health care, economic and political systems — to a fateful test. (Collinson, 3/16)

Amid an outbreak where vaccines, drug treatments and even sufficient testing don’t yet exist, communication that is delivered early, accurately and credibly is the strongest medicine in the government’s arsenal. But the Trump administration’s zigzagging, defensive, inconsistent messages about the novel coronavirus continued Friday, breaking almost every rule in the book and eroding the most powerful weapon officials possess: Public trust. (Johnson and Wan, 3/14)

President Donald Trump has tested negative for the new coronavirus, according to the president's personal physician. The White House released the test results Saturday night after Trump told reporters hours earlier that he had taken the coronavirus test, following days of resisting being screened despite the fact that he had been in recent contact with three people who have tested positive for the virus, including members of the Brazilian president's delegation who visited with him at his Florida resort. (3/14)

Donald Trump's coronavirus test came back negative after his exposure to an infected Brazilian official. But that doesn't guarantee a clean Covid-19 bill of health going forward. Because of the President's ongoing contact with countless numbers of people -- including White House staff -- he should be regularly screened and tested as appropriate. Hopefully, he will now start following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to avoid turning the White House into a hot spot for infection. (Samantha Vinograd, 3/15)

After hosting a gathering with guests later found to be infected with the coronavirus, President Trump refrained from getting tested, let alone from self-quarantine, even as administration officials urged Americans to adopt stern new precautions. Mr. Trump finally underwent testing for the virus on Saturday morning and was reported to be negative on Saturday evening. Still, the episode has startled and disconcerted medical experts, who worry that it sets a poor example for Americans and suggests that the president still does not fully understand the risks the country faces. (Rabin, 3/14)

A federal court blocked the Trump administration's rule that would have forced 700,000 low-income Americans to lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Access Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, on April 1. Judge Beryl A. Howell, the chief of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, cited the coronavirus pandemic in her decision to suspend the rule from going into effect. (McCausland, 3/14)

The country’s tech giants have joined with the White House in a task force to fight the new coronavirus, as Silicon Valley escalates its efforts to tackle the fast-moving pandemic, according to people familiar with the group. The companies, including Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., AMZN 6.46% on Sunday conducted a nearly hourlong meeting with White House officials, including Michael Kratsios, chief technology officer of the U.S., one of these people said. Forty-five people joined. (Grind and Winkler, 3/15)

Google on Sunday announced a nationwide website dedicated to providing Americans with information about the novel coronavirus. But that description stops short of what President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have spent days saying Google was developing very quickly: A website meant to assess patient symptoms and to direct Americans to "testing at a nearby convenient location." Google is working with the US government on the informational site, said Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, in a blog post. The website will contain educational material and "best practices for prevention," and will launch late Monday. (Fung, 3/15)

Google sister company Verily launched a website late on Sunday that invites adults in northern California to answer questions about their recent health and travel that could result in their getting a free coronavirus test. U.S. President Donald Trump had thanked Google on Friday for developing a website that he said would help people determine whether they needed a coronavirus test. (3/16)

AT&T, Comcast and dozens of other telecommunications firms have committed to not disconnecting service to residential and small business customers who can’t pay their bills because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Federal Communications Commission said on Friday. The pledge the companies plan to implement also calls for them to open public Wi-Fi hot spots and waive late fees for 60 days. (Diaz, 3/14)

The U.S. internet won’t get overloaded by spikes in traffic from the millions of Americans now working from home to discourage the spread of the new coronavirus, experts say. But connections could stumble for many if too many family members try to videoconference at the same time. Some may have to settle for audio, which is much less demanding of bandwidth. (3/14)

Massive lines ballooned across several U.S. airports this weekend as European travelers made a mad dash for home — a situation created by the quick rollout of the Trump administration’s European travel ban and exacerbated by chronic airport staffing shortages. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on Sunday evening that the problems had been addressed, and that wait times were down to an average of 30 minutes for passengers to get through Customs at the 13 airports where flights from Europe are being funneled. About 40,000 travelers arriving from Europe were screened Saturday. (Mintz, Snyder and Ehley, 3/15)

Thousands of travelers returning to the U.S. from abroad this weekend have confronted significant waits as screening aimed at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus created major bottlenecks. Chaos and confusion ensued at airports across the country, including New York, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, as anxious passengers waited sometimes for hours in long and cramped customs lines. Passengers said they mingled with others who appeared sick and received brief, inconsistent medical checks. Airports are bracing for the next wave of international flights to land, hoping that efforts Sunday to boost staffing and slow down the flow of passengers will help avoid more snarls. (Sider and Hackman, 3/15)

Those who came to the U.S. from abroad Saturday were met with chaos as new coronavirus screenings snarled airports around the country, forcing travelers into overcrowded lines for hours. Beth Kander, 38, returned from France to a "madhouse" at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, where she spent about five hours going from line to line. Kander told NBC News Sunday that her flight was only alerted to the screenings about an hour before landing. (Madani and Syed, 3/15)

America’s top infectious diseases expert expressed concern over the crush of travelers stuck in airports trying to return home in light of new travel restrictions from Europe, urging Americans to remain calm and not overwhelm the world’s airports. This weekend’s implementation of the restrictions announced only days earlier has spurred a mad dash of Americans abroad returning home, causing backups and massive crowds in airports across the country. (Oprysko, 3/15)

The White House announced Saturday that its sweeping travel restrictions will be expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland, as countries around the globe struggled to intensify efforts to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The United States is limiting travel from 28 nations across Europe, though U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are exempted. The announcement came as other countries sought to lock down their borders to contain the pandemic that surged across Asia and now claims Europe as the latest epicenter. (Gearan, Mettler, Berger and Davenport, 3/14)

Travelers returning to the United States and being screened for the coronavirus were met by long lines and massive delays at some major airports, prompting federal officials to deploy more staff and President Donald Trump to appeal for patience. "Pardon the interruptions and delays," Trump said in a Twitter post on Sunday afternoon. "We are moving as quickly as possible, but it is very important that we be vigilant and careful." (3/15)

You’ve seen the picture: exhausted travelers waiting to have a thermometer pointed at their heads. There are temperature checks at airports, screenings outside shops, people being stopped and examined while they walk down the street. Two months into this pandemic, with anxiety running high, many people are wondering: Shouldn’t we all be getting our temperature checked? (Rauhala, 3/14)

The world’s major airlines continued to cut flights and take other emergency measures, including reducing costs and seeking cash, to cope with vanishing bookings amid the spread of the new coronavirus. Some European carriers early Monday grounded almost all flights. (Katz and Sider, 3/16)

With the coronavirus pandemic escalating in the U.S. and overseas, Dylcia McBlackwell couldn't justify taking a single spring vacation. Air fares were so cheap, she decided to book three. Now the 39-year-old food service worker from Chicago has tickets to fly to Denver to visit friends next month followed by a May trip to Charleston, South Carolina. After that, she's booked a flight to Costa Rica. All for a combined total of $435 for trips that might normally cost $700 or more. (3/15)

California airports are beginning to feel the impact of the coronavirus, with at least nine cases reported. All the airports have said they have increased cleaning and taken other precautions. (Wigglesworth, 3/15)

The Transportation Security Administration will allow travelers to bring larger bottles of hand sanitizer on board with them when they fly, the agency announced Friday — the latest in a series of policy changes tied to the novel coronavirus outbreak. (Aratani, 3/13)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on Friday that it has increased its carry-on liquid limit to up to 12 ounces for hand sanitizers."TSA understands that COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is at the forefront on the minds of travelers, as health officials are encouraging that individuals wash their hands frequently," the agency announced on its website. "With that in mind, TSA is allowing passengers to bring liquid hand sanitizer containers up to 12 ounces to be permitted in carry-on bags until further notice." (Fletcher, 3/15)

The clinician at International Community Health Services in Seattle took his time before entering the checkup room. He tried not to think about the clinic’s dwindling resources or the challenges of getting coronavirus testing kits as he soaped and scrubbed his hands pink, wrapped a heavy-duty mask around his face and snapped on disposable rubber gloves and a pair of goggles. The full outfit is necessary every time he meets patients — largely low-income Asian Americans and immigrants who have Medicaid or no insurance at all — even as the clinic’s orders for medical supplies come in short and disinfectant levels run low. (McCausland, 3/14)

For years, health experts said state governments didn’t do enough to bolster their public health offices and services. Now they are struggling to catch up as COVID-19 spreads through their communities. Most state and local governments put public health on the back burner when it comes to their priorities and in some cases, reduce the amount dedicated to those offices, according to Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director at the American Public Health Association. Benjamin, a former secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, said these cuts left many states in a weakened position to fight the coronavirus outbreak. (Pereira, 3/16)

As the new coronavirus has been spreading across the U.S., many Americans are worried not just about being exposed to the virus and their health. They also want to know how various insurance policies they own—or are thinking about buying—would help them financially. Here are some commonly asked questions. (Scism, 3/15)

As of 2018, the most recent year for which U.S. census data was available, 5.1 million people in Texas, or 18% of the state’s population, were uninsured .And Hispanics are the state’s most unprotected population, with 61% lacking health insurance, according to the Texas Medical Association.In Dallas, 24.4% of residents were uninsured in 2018, census data shows. (Garcia and Keomoungkhoun, 3/15)

As hospitals brace for a surge of patients sickened by the new coronavirus, they are canceling surgeries and pushing even routine doctor visits away from their facilities. Doctors and hospitals are evaluating cancellations to distinguish between scheduled surgery that can wait, such as a routine screening colonoscopy or knee replacement, and procedures that can’t, such as a bone scan or MRI to reveal how far cancer has progressed. (Wilde Mathews and Evans, 3/15)

One of metro Atlanta’s largest health care groups is postponing elective surgeries for the next two weeks as the system confronts increasing patient demands amid the coronavirus outbreak.Emory Healthcare said Sunday it will postpone “all inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases,” starting Monday. Procedural cases include such things as colonoscopies. After two weeks, Emory Healthcare said it will evaluate week-to-week. (Trubey, 3/15)

Alison Krupnick was mentally preparing herself for the surgery set for early in the coming week that could eliminate her early-stage cervical cancer. But on Friday, she got word from the hospital: Because of the crush of coronavirus patients, her surgery was being called off. Ms. Krupnick was left feeling as if a time bomb was inside of her, and no firm word on when her surgery would be rescheduled. (Weise, Baker and Bogel-Burroughs, 3/14)

When 97-year-old Clara Morano had trouble breathing as well as swelling in her legs earlier this year, an ambulance took her to the emergency room at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where doctors helped her recover. If those symptoms return, she may not have to leave home. Morano, who has congestive heart failure, is among the patients who could be served by a new program that is deploying paramedics to provide hospital-level care in patients’ homes. (McCluskey, 3/15)

A clinical trial evaluating a vaccine designed to protect against the new coronavirus will begin Monday, according to a government official. The first participant in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine on Monday, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the trial has not been publicly announced yet. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at a Kaiser Permanente research facility in Washington state, the official said. (Miller, 3/15)

The Trump administration attempted to persuade a German firm developing a possible vaccine for coronavirus to move its research work to the United States, German officials said, raising fears in Berlin that President Trump was trying to assure that any inoculation would be available first, and perhaps exclusively, in the United States. The offer arose from a March 2 meeting at the White House that included the chief executive of the German firm CureVac, Daniel Menichella. President Trump briefly attended the meeting and Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, was also there. (Bennhold and Sanger, 3/15)

German officials will discuss a reported U.S. attempt to secure the rights to any coronavirus vaccine developed by a German pharmaceutical company in crisis meetings on Monday, the country's interior minister said, amid concerns that the Trump administration was trying to monopolize the market. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, when asked to confirm a report the Trump administration was attempting to secure exclusive rights to any vaccine created by the German biopharmaceutical firm CureVac, said he had “heard from several other members of government today that is the case.” (Morris, 3/15)

Exactly what the Trump administration was offering, and how CureVac responded, was unclear. A U.S. official denied the reports, and the company’s main shareholders — including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — immediately made clear CureVac’s vaccine would not be sold to a single country. (Branswell, 3/15)

Among the many lessons of the coronavirus pandemic is how close humans are to the rest of the animal kingdom. We get diseases from other animals, and then we use more animals to figure out how to stop the diseases. As research ramps up treatments and vaccines, animals are crucial to fighting the pandemic. There are different animals at each end of the pandemic, of course. The new disease almost certainly began with a bat virus, scientists agree. That virus probably passed through another animal, perhaps pangolins, on its way to humans. (Gorman, 3/14)

After the first case of covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, was announced in the United States, reports of further infections trickled in slowly. Two months later, that trickle has turned into a steady current. (Stevens, 3/14)

The medical impact of the new coronavirus is coming into sharper focus as it continues its spread in what is now officially recognized as a pandemic. Its true fatality rate isn't yet known, but it seems 10 times higher than the flu, which kills hundreds of thousands around the world each year, the United States' top infectious disease expert told lawmakers last week. (Marchione, 3/15)

As scientists scramble to understand more about the novel coronavirus, a new government-funded experiment shows that the virus can survive on surfaces such as plastic and stainless steel for up to three days. Though preliminary, the experiment emphasizes the importance of diligently sanitizing cellphones, plastic and metal surfaces regularly to prevent the spread of SARS-COVID-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (Kumar and Salzman, 3/13)

When a new virus blasts out of the animals that harbored it and into people, experts can usually say, thank goodness it’s not like measles. That virus is more contagious than any others known to science: Each case of measles causes an astronomical 12 to 18 new cases, compared to about six for polio, smallpox, and rubella. Each case of the new coronavirus is estimated to cause two to three others. The reason the measles is so, well, viral, is that the microbe is so small and hardy that it is able to stay suspended in the air where an infected person coughed or sneezed for up to two hours, making it one of the only viruses that can exist as a true aerosol. Now there are conflicting reports on whether the new coronavirus can. (Begley, 3/16)

As a longtime health care reporter, I see the unfolding coronavirus pandemic as representing everything I’ve read about — from the early days of epidemiology to the staggering toll of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic — but had not covered in my lifetime. And still, I have been caught off guard by the pushback from top elected officials and even some friends and acquaintances who keep comparing it to the flu. (Ornstein, 3/14)

The coronavirus, which surfaced in a Chinese seafood and poultry market late last year, has spread to more than 135 countries, killing more than 5,300 and sickening tens of thousands of people in a matter of weeks. The World Health Organization has declared the situation a pandemic. Here’s a timeline of the outbreak so far. (Taylor, 3/14)

A decade ago, a group of chemists cooked up a compound they simply called 3a and that, in lab experiments, fought off a number of different viruses. One was a type of coronavirus. Now, the descendant of that molecule — Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir — is being rushed to patients with infections from the novel coronavirus in hopes that it can reduce the intensity and duration of Covid-19 and ease the burden of the pandemic on health systems. (Joseph, 3/16)

In another development, researchers who monitor syndromic surveillance systems reported some of the first signals that might reflect increased activity due to COVID-19. On Twitter, Marc Lipsitch, DPhil, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, noted that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) flulike illness latest chart shows a slight increase, though flu testing is declining. "Only one week so far but best evidence I know for widespread COVID-19 in the absence of viral testing," he said. "Something to watch carefully in each region." (Schnirring, 3/15)

Kaiser Health News: Former Federal Virus Hunter Says U.S. Needs To Act Before New Germs ‘Kick Your Door In’ 

When the federal government decided to investigate the threat viruses in animals posed to humans, Dennis Carroll helped lead the charge. Carroll directed the pandemic influenza and emerging threats unit at the federal Agency for International Development (USAID) for nearly 15 years. In that time, he spearheaded Predict, a project that identified more than 2,000 zoonotic viruses, or germs in animals ― the viral “dark matter,” as he characterizes it — that could also sicken people. (Heredia Rodriguez, 3/16)

For food-delivery companies, the new coronavirus poses a complex puzzle: It could boost customer demand but batter the restaurants that supply the food and threaten the health of workers who deliver it. Initial signs from areas like Seattle that were hard-hit early on by the U.S. outbreak show robust orders for food delivery, as employees are urged to work from home and schools close. But customers also are cutting back on actual visits that are important to restaurants’ profitability. (Haddon and Rana, 3/15)

The offices of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University sit 10 floors above Boston’s Back Bay. Wraparound windows offer a floating panorama of the city, from Boston Common to Fenway Park, as a half-dozen young analysts toil quietly at computers. At 10 a.m. on a recent morning, with the early calls to the World Health Organization and European doctors complete and the check-in with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scheduled for later, Alessandro Vespignani, the institute’s director, had some time to work the room. In a black blazer and jeans, he moved from cubicle to cubicle, giving each member of his team the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic. (Carey, 3/13)

Amid the uncertainty swirling around the coronavirus pandemic stands one incontrovertible fact: The highest rate of fatalities is among older people, particularly those with underlying medical conditions. Of the confirmed cases in China to date, nearly 15 percent of patients over 80 have died. For those under 50, the death rate was well below 1 percent. There is no evidence yet that older people are significantly more likely to acquire the coronavirus than younger people. But medical experts say that if people over 60 are infected, they are more likely to have severe, life-threatening disease, even if their general health is good. (Hafner, 3/14)

Schools and day care centers are closing, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling us to limit close contact with others if the coronavirus is known to be spreading within our community. But what does close contact mean, exactly? Should we stop letting our kids have play dates? Is it OK to go to the museum or playground or indoor trampoline park? And what about birthday parties? (Moyer, 3/13)

Coronavirus! Yes, it's a serious situation, and yes, it deserves your vigilance and attention. But the constant spring of information, precautions and warnings, whether it's straight from the CDC or some recirculated, dubiously-sourced post on Facebook, can take a real toll on your mental health.When does caution become overreaction? When does staying informed cross the line into, well, too much information? (Willingham, 3/14)

Nurses and doctors rank high. But so do hairdressers and dentists. (Gamio, 3/15)

People who are wrestling with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders are feeling an even heavier burden in these stress-producing times. Much of the news about coronavirus feeds their already heightened concerns about contamination, being sick or general discomfort when the future is uncertain. Washing hands, avoiding crowds, and for some with possible exposure — twice daily temperature taking — have become urgent public health recommendations instead of excessive behavior requiring treatment. (Vander Schaaff, 3/14)

Contracting the new strain of coronavirus was stressful enough for one 55-year-old Washington, D.C., aerospace consultant. But tracking down and calling the people he came into contact with may have been just as bad. “Are you sitting down? I got bad news,” he told people at least a dozen times. The consultant was diagnosed Friday with the illness, one among the early waves of known cases in the United States. (Bierman, 3/15)

As the coronavirus advances across the country, more Americans are staying in their homes. That sort of "social distancing" is considered essential to slowing the spread of the virus and easing the burden on the beleaguered health infrastructure. But for those suffering from depression, especially those who struggle with suicidal thoughts, it is definitely not what the doctor ordered. (Sacks, 3/16)

Uh, oh. You wake up feeling crummy. Your throat hurts; maybe you have a cough. You are definitely anxious. What should you do? Can you get tested to rule out the novel coronavirus? (McGinley, 3/13)

Scientists studying the novel coronavirus are quickly uncovering features that allow it to infect and sicken human beings. Every virus has a signature way of interacting with the world, and this one — SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease covid-19 — is well-equipped to create a historic pandemic. The coronavirus can be shed by people even before they develop symptoms. That pre-symptomatic transmission has helped it become a stealth contagion, spreading through communities before they know what hit them. (Achenbach, 3/13)

The number of coronavirus cases in the United States is ticking steadily upward, and with it are Americans’ collective anxiety levels. But stockpiling massive caches of toilet paper and bottled water for insular forts will only lead to more shortages and more stress. Instead, the best way for us all to prepare is by looking out for one another. (Misra, 3/15)

As the novel coronavirus continues to claim lives in the United States, experts are investigating what factors increase some people’s risk of dying from the virus. So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not released a summary of basic demographic information about the people who have died, but according to information collected by ABC News' Medical Unit, the majority of deaths have been among people in the 70s, 80s and 90s. (Salzman, 3/14)

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged out of China in December 2019 is a highly infectious pathogen with the potential to rapidly overload health care systems and inflict substantial mortality around the world. An effective vaccine for this virus is under development and although moving quickly, will not be available to protect the most vulnerable for another year. The average case fatality rate for this virus has been estimated to be at least 1 percent, but this estimate is expected to vary geographically as a function of health care capacity, baseline population health and other socio-demographic factors. (Gerardo Chowell and Lisa Casanova, 3/15)

As the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the US and its territories, health departments have created landing pages where people can go to get the latest information about the virus in their specific location. Here is a list of those pages for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and Guam. (Vera, 3/16)

Governor Charlie Baker on Sunday night ordered all public and private schools across Massachusetts to close for three weeks, beginning Tuesday, and has limited all restaurants to only takeout and delivery as of Tuesday, in his most sweeping action yet to slow the increasing rate of the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Belman and Hilliard, 3/15)

Doctors here warn that unless dramatic action is taken now to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the outbreak threatens to dangerously overload the Massachusetts health care system. Several measures have been implemented across the state to decelerate the pace of contagion. Colleges are sending students home. School districts have suspended classes. (Pan, 3/13)

Massachusetts on Sunday announced a big jump in the number of residents who have been tested for the Covid-19 virus in just the previous day, but public health experts warned that the state remains a long way from testing enough people every day to sufficiently halt the spread of the disease. Officials said 969 people had been tested for coronavirus as of Sunday evening, up from 475 Saturday. (Hilliard, 3/15)

Amid mounting frustration over access to coronavirus testing, the Baker administration on Friday released new guidelines to health care providers that significantly relax rules on who can be tested, a move doctors say should substantially increase access. But it remains unclear exactly how many tests the state is actually completing. (Lazar and Fernandes, 3/13)

As Greater Boston faces one of the biggest public health crises in its history — with schools shuttering, businesses running remotely, and health care workers bracing for a spike in patients — leaders in the city’s business and philanthropic communities are stepping up to help those who stand to be hurt the most. On Monday, the City of Boston will announce a new fund to assist families affected by the sprawling coronavirus outbreak. (Nanos, 3/15)

The president of Massachusetts General Hospital on Sunday compared the coronavirus crisis to a time of war and said he’s worried about the shortage of personal protective equipment needed to keep doctors and nurses safe as they confront rising numbers of infected patients. (McCluskey, 3/15)

Around the time health officials confirmed the first Covid-19 infection in the United States, local homeless service providers shared tips on basic hygiene and infection prevention. Shortly later, shelter operators began stepping up daily cleanings and doling out hand sanitizer. Now as the global coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, city officials and advocates for the homeless are scrambling to develop a plan to head off a potential spread of the virus among this especially vulnerable group. (Coleman, 3/13)

Two health care providers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston are infected with the coronavirus, and the hospital is contacting patients and staff who may have been exposed. In a memo to staff Saturday, hospital leaders said they are in close contact with state and city public health officials and are following their guidance about how to proceed. (Kowalczyk, 3/15)

The state’s Medicaid organization Friday said it will allow pharmacies to dispense up to a 90-day supply of most prescription drugs for the low-income residents it serves, waiving a 30-day supply limit in response to the spreading coronavirus that has left many residents homebound. MassHealth ― which insures about 1.8 million Massachusetts residents, including about 312,000 seniors and people with disabilities ― also said it will permit them to order early refills of their prescriptions to ensure residents have adequate supplies of medicine during the public health crisis. (Weisman, 3/13)

The battle against the spread of the coronavirus moved into law enforcement and Massachusetts courthouses on Friday as the state’s high court ordered a halt to new jury trials until April 21. Meanwhile, some police departments are terminating non-emergency in-station visits from the public for the immediate future. In two orders issued Friday, the Supreme Judicial Court ordered a temporary halt to new jury trials in both criminal and civil cases and put a freeze on grand juries, which are used by prosecutors to bring charges in the most serious violent crimes. (Ellement, Estes and Alanez, 3/13)

One of the largest senior care operators in Mass. — Hebrew SeniorLife — announced Friday afternoon that no non-essential visitors will be allowed to visit its nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other short- and long-term care centers because of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. (Wasser, 3/13)

Gov. Gina Raimondo is directing child-care centers to close this week, a change from her request from last week that they remain open. Raimondo announced early Sunday afternoon that testing since Saturday has not found any additional positive cases of coronavirus in the state. The number of positive cases in the state remains at 20. (List, 3/15)

Restaurants and bars in Washington state will temporarily suspend dine-in service amid the coronavirus outbreak as officials attempt to stop the spread of the virus, the governor announced Sunday. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) tweeted that no restaurant in the state will be permitted to serve in-person customers for the foreseeable future, with take-out and delivery services still permitted. (Bowden, 3/15)

A New Orleans-area resident has become the first person in Louisiana to die from the novel coronavirus, officials said Saturday, underscoring the high stakes as health officials race to stop a disease they fear is spreading at a faster rate in Louisiana than almost anywhere else in the U.S.Gov. John Bel Edwards' office announced the news. The virus took the life of a 58-year-old Orleans Parish resident with underlying health conditions who was hospitalized at Touro Infirmary, it said. (Sledge and Karlin, 3/14)

Even as President Donald Trump promised that more coronavirus tests are coming soon, Louisiana health officials on Friday urged doctors to send samples from patients who don’t meet the state’s strict testing criteria to private labs that are rapidly ramping up their capacity. But patients and doctors in the New Orleans area, the heart of Louisiana’s coronavirus outbreak, still said they are being thwarted in their attempts to obtain tests, and many worried about how much the tests or related hospital and doctor visits will cost. (Sledge, 3/13)

Five faculty members from UT Southwestern Medical Center are in quarantine in their homes after they were exposed Wednesday to someone at a medical conference who later tested positive for COVID-19.In an email to the radiation oncology department of the medical center, which was obtained by The Dallas Morning News, Robert Timmerman, a professor in the department, said the exposure happened at a conference on the UTSW campus Wednesday morning. The person had a rapid test Wednesday after becoming ill and received the positive result Thursday. (Martin, 3/13)

Worried about the spread of the coronavirus, the Superior Court chief judges of Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties have ordered a delay in all court services.Trials will be suspended. Juries won’t be selected. The order covers the next 14 days in Gwinnett, with Fulton and Cobb courts on hiatus for 30 days. Fulton Chief Judge Christopher Brasher said the virus “substantially endangers or infringes upon the normal functioning of the judicial system.” (Boone and Sharpe, 3/13)

The Veterans Affairs hospital in Decatur is reporting two suspected cases of COVID-19, according to emails to medical staff.The patients tested initially positive Wednesday evening, and the tests are awaiting confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to emails that a hospital staffer shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the condition of anonymity. (Quinn, 3/13)

One of metro Atlanta’s largest health care groups is postponing elective surgeries for the next two weeks as the system confronts increasing patient demands amid the coronavirus outbreak.Emory Healthcare said Sunday it will postpone “all inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases,” starting Monday. Procedural cases include such things as colonoscopies. After two weeks, Emory Healthcare said it will evaluate week-to-week. (Trubey, 3/15)

The deans of Harvard's medical, dental and public health schools are asking research staffers and students to help develop a "rapid ramp-down" strategy for most research to enable the social distancing called for in the coronavirus outbreak.In a community email sent out Friday morning, the three deans write that lab chiefs will aim to enter a period of "low productivity" by this coming Wednesday, and it "will likely last at least six to eight weeks." (Goldberg, 3/13)

There are now three cases of COVID-19 in Oakland County, two of which were announced late Thursday night. Both new cases are adult men. One has no known travel history. The other man traveled in the U.S.  (Shamus, 3/13)

The number of positive coronavirus cases is now up to 53 in Michigan, the state Department of Health and Human Services announced late Sunday night.It announced 20 additional positive cases on Sunday from the day before. Among the 20 new cases announced Sunday was a male child from Oakland County who had contact with a person with the coronavirus. (Hall, 3/15)

Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. on Saturday released a list of 30 meal pickup locations for families who depend on school-provided breakfast and lunch service while schools are closed. (Walsh, 3/14)

St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children closed its intensive care unit to new patients and the Level 1 trauma unit shut down Friday, March 13, after a physician tested positive for coronavirus. The rest of the hospital remained open, according to a memo sent to Drexel staff and students by the university’s president, John Fry, on Saturday and obtained by The Inquirer on Sunday.St. Christopher’s is jointly owned by Drexel and Tower Health, and operated by Tower. (Gantz and Whelan, 3/15)

There are plenty of reasons West Virginia, as of Saturday afternoon, was the only state in the country with no confirmed cases of the coronavirus. It is a small state and mostly rural, much of its population already socially distanced by hollows and mountains. It is a state, as the West Virginia health secretary said at a news conference on Friday, that doesn’t “have a lot of international travel.” Still, at that same news conference, Gov. Jim Justice was bluntly realistic. (Wines and Robertson, 3/14)

It was Sunday morning, and the vast parking lots of Bridgeway Community Church sat empty. Instead of greeting thousands of worshipers, volunteers stood in the damp cold, ready to explain to anyone who might not have heard that services are now online only, at least until the threat of Covid-19 has passed. (Dias, 3/15)

The governor of Illinois on Sunday ordered all bars and restaurants in his state to close amid the threat of the new coronavirus, and officials elsewhere in the country said they were considering similar restrictions after revelers ignored warnings against attending large gatherings. "The time for persuasion and public appeals is over,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “This is not a joke. No one is immune to this.” (3/15)

Italy recorded 368 new deaths from the COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday as the total rose to 1,809 from 1,441 a day earlier, the country's civil protection authority said on Sunday. The number of positive cases rose to 24,747 from 21,157 a day earlier as Europe's worst outbreak of the deadly virus continued to expand. (3/15)

The death toll from coronavirus in Lombardy, Italy's worst affected region, rose by 252 to 1,218 on Sunday, from 966 a day earlier, the region's senior health official said. Full numbers for the whole of Italy are due to be released later on Sunday. (3/15)

Italian authorities voiced growing concern on Sunday over how much longer strained health systems could cope with the coronavirus outbreak, as thousands of new cases were recorded over the past 24 hours and several hundred more people died. While the virus has begun spreading rapidly across Europe, Italy remains the second most heavily affected country after China, where the illness first emerged, and the outbreak has shown no signs of slowing. (Mackenzie, 3/15)

It started with the national anthem. Then came the piano chords, trumpet blasts, violin serenades and even the clanging of pots and pans — all of it spilling from people’s homes, out of windows and from balconies, and rippling across rooftops. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, a nationwide round of applause broke out for the doctors on the medical front lines fighting the spread of Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. (Horowitz, 3/14)

Top infections disease official Anthony Fauci said Sunday that after strict containment and mitigation, China’s novel coronavirus outbreak is “coming down right now.” On ABC’s “This Week,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said it takes several weeks to a few months for the outbreak to dwindle, pointing to China and South Korea as examples. (Dugyala, 3/15)

Coronavirus deaths outside China surpassed those inside for the first time, as the center of the pandemic shifted decisively toward the U.S. and Europe and forced a growing number of countries to limit travel and gatherings to contain the spread. More than 3,300 people from countries including Italy, Iran and Spain had died from the new coronavirus as of early Monday, compared with around 3,200 in China, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Lin, 3/16)

When Jacob Wang saw reports circulating online recently suggesting that life was getting better in Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, he was irate. Mr. Wang, a journalist for a state-run newspaper in China, knew that Wuhan was still in crisis — he had traveled there to chronicle the failures of the government firsthand. He took to social media to set the record straight, writing a damning post last month about sick patients struggling to get medical care amid a dysfunctional bureaucracy. Hernandez, 3/14)

China has tightened checks on international travelers at Beijing airport and said it will centrally quarantine all arrivals at its capital, after new imported coronavirus cases surpassed locally transmitted infections for a second day. China, where the epidemic began in December, appears to now face a greater threat of new infections from outside its borders as it continues to slow the spread of the virus domestically. (3/15)

Islamic State (ISIS) has adopted a safety-first approach to the coronavirus pandemic and advised its members not to travel to Europe, Homeland Security Today reported. In the latest edition of the terrorist group’s al-Naba newsletter, the editors who normally urge followers to carry out attacks on the West instead ask them to "stay away from the land of the epidemic" for the time being. (Hernandez-Morales, 3/15)

When the coronavirus hit Iran in February, it presented its leaders with a choice: Close the country down to contain the outbreak and risk the wrath of a population already fed up with economic hardship, or try to keep the economy ticking over and risk the outbreak spiraling out of control. Tehran chose the latter. (Rasmussen and Eqbali, 3/15)

The official leading Iran's response to the new coronavirus acknowledged Sunday that the pandemic could overwhelm health facilities in his country, which is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East while under heavy U.S. sanctions. Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon ordered residents not to leave their homes except for urgent necessities and even closed down Beirut's famous Mediterranean boardwalk. Muslim authorities indefinitely closed the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, with prayers continuing to be held on the sprawling esplanade outside. (3/15)

A 78-year-old member of the Iranian clerical body that chooses the country's supreme leader has died from the illness caused by the new coronavirus, news agencies reported Monday. He was the latest of several senior Iranian officials to have been infected in the worsening outbreak. The outbreak has infected nearly 14,000 people in Iran and killed more than 700, with the toll jumping by more than a hundred in the last 24 hours. The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the government's reporting. (3/16)

The scene is becoming all too familiar, and now it has gripped Spain: Streets are empty, shops are shuttered, families are cloistered at home and the numbers of those infected with the coronavirus, and those who have died, are growing. Spain — like Italy and France to varying degrees — is now on lockdown, struggling to contain a virus that already seems out of control, with about 8,000 people infected and almost 300 dead. In the center of Madrid, police patrolled the streets, with few cars passing along its main artery, the Castellana. In Barcelona, the Gothic Quarter was empty, and private security kept anyone from entering the cathedral. (Minder and Peltier, 3/15)

Faced with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, Spain on Saturday became the second country in Europe to impose sweeping restrictions on the public, telling everyone to stay indoors, with limited exceptions. The government said people could leave their homes to buy food, to go to work if they cannot work remotely, to seek health care, or to assist the elderly and others in need. (Minder and Peltier, 3/14)

Just last weekend, about 120,000 people marched through downtown Madrid to celebrate International Women’s Day. Some 60,000 soccer fans filled one of the city’s largest stadiums. And 9,000 supporters of Vox, Spain’s third-largest party, gathered inside a former bullring. Now Spain has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections of any European country, after Italy — overtaking the larger nations of France and Germany — and faces the fastest spreading contagion on the Continent. (Minder, 3/13)

Spain’s government said Saturday that the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has tested positive for the new coronavirus. It said Begoña Gómez and the prime minister are in good health and following the instructions of medical authorities at their residence in La Moncloa Palace in Madrid, the government seat. (3/14)

Central American countries took further and tougher steps to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus on Saturday with measures ranging from bans on large gatherings to travel restrictions. El Salvador's Congress approved a series of emergency measures sought by President Nayib Bukele to prevent the spread of the virus and to fend off the risk of a public health crisis. (3/15)

Countries across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This list, pulled from official government reports and the United States State Department, will be updated as new measures are announced. (Londono and Ortiz, 3/15)

The “gilded museum” of Europe is hollow and echoing. The great squares and stadiums are empty, the museums shut, the churches hesitant about services, the fine restaurants and cool bars shuttered. The coronavirus is not only spreading, but also infecting societies with a sense of insecurity, fear and fragmentation. Above all, it has severed humanity from its conceit of control and of the invincibility of its institutions, science, technology and democracies. If that is true nearly everywhere the virus goes, it is all the more so in Europe, with its history of Enlightenment, where life is lived, ordinarily, on an intimate scale, bumping shoulders on the street or in the cafe, greeting friends with kisses on the cheeks. (Erianger, 3/15)

Voters turned out in low numbers in France's mayoral elections on Sunday after the government imposed stringent restrictions on public life to curb the spread of the coronavirus, though many headed outdoors to enjoy the warm spring sunshine. Many expressed bemusement after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe's announcement on Saturday that the vote would go ahead even as he declared all cafes, bars, cinemas and non-essential shops would close until further notice. (3/15)

France and Spain joined Italy in imposing lockdowns on tens of millions of people, Australia ordered self-isolation of arriving foreigners and other countries extended entry bans as the world sought to contain the spreading coronavirus. Panic buying in Australia, the United States and Britain saw leaders appeal for calm over the virus that has infected over 156,000 people globally and killed more than 5,800. (3/15)

France is struggling to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, its top health official Jerome Salomon said on Monday, as authorities consider whether to implement a partial lockdown. Salomon expressed his regret that many Parisians had ventured out in large numbers on Sunday despite official advice to stay at home and a government shutdown on bars and restaurants around the country. (3/16)

Two medical workers have tested positive for coronavirus in Austria's university hospital Uniklinum Salzburg, the regional authorities reported on Sunday. An anesthesiologist who had recently visited the Paznaun Valley in Tyrol, where Austria's first cases were reported and where 245 cases had been confirmed as of Sunday, tested positive after returning and continuing to work for four days. (3/15)

Faced with a virus that won’t slow down, the world itself moved Sunday to come to a near halt. One after another, countries imposed extraordinary measures as they raced to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Schools were closed and restaurants shuttered. Quarantines were mandated and travel severely limited. Austria banned gatherings of more than five people and imposed steep fines for those who disobeyed a far-reaching curfew. (Nossiter, Minder, Povoledo and Erlanger, 3/15)

Germany will temporarily introduce border controls on its frontiers with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Denmark from Monday, the government said on Sunday as the country seeks to curb a rapid spread of coronavirus. Germany is facing an aggressive progression of the illness, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said. (3/15)

The Peace Corps is suspending its global operations and evacuating all volunteers as concerns mount about the coronavirus pandemic, the organization said Sunday. "As COVID-19 continues to spread and international travel becomes more and more challenging by the day, we are acting now to safeguard your well-being and prevent a situation where Volunteers are unable to leave their host countries," director Jody K. Olsen said in a letter to volunteers. (Spells and Cullinane, 3/16)

U.S. humanitarian group the Peace Corps, said it will temporarily suspend all global operations and evacuate its volunteers, amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. "As COVID-19 continues to spread and international travel becomes more and more challenging by the day, we are acting now to ... prevent a situation where volunteers are unable to leave their host countries," Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen said in a letter to volunteers posted on its website. (3/16)

African nations from Rwanda to Mauritania have reported their first cases of coronavirus, demonstrating the spread of the pandemic is accelerating across the world’s second-most populated continent. The sub-Saharan region has lagged behind rising numbers globally, as health-care systems brace for the virus to emerge. (Burkhardt, 3/14)

Several cruise ships are stranded at sea, some with confirmed coronavirus cases on board, as the pandemic expands around the globe. Some ships have been denied port, leaving them to anchor off the coast of a country. Other cruises have docked with quarantined passengers aboard. Three cruise ships have confirmed cases of coronavirus on board: the MS Braemar, Silver Shadow and Silver Explorer. Here is the status of the cruise ships in limbo that we know of. (Zdanowicz, 3/15)

Japan's health ministry said it has identified 15 clusters of coronavirus infections around the country. The biggest cluster was in the Osaka area, with more than 50 infections centered around a music venue, according to a document on the ministry's website. It was initially reported by Kyodo news. (3/15)

Mexico's health ministry late on Sunday rejected media reports that the country had registered its first coronavirus death, saying that the person reported to have died, businessman Jose Kuri, was alive but in critical condition. Earlier on Sunday, veteran broadcaster Joaquin Lopez-Doriga said on Twitter that Kuri had died after testing positive following a trip to the United States. Other prominent journalists published reports on Kuri's death. (3/16)

Germany will temporarily introduce border controls on its frontiers with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Denmark from Monday, the government said on Sunday as the country seeks to curb a rapid spread of coronavirus. Germany is facing an aggressive progression of the illness, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said. (3/16)

South Korea reported 74 new coronavirus infections on Monday, slightly lower than the previous day, health officials said, taking the tally of cases to 8,236, with 75 deaths. New infections have been on a declining trajectory, with the latest figures well below a Feb. 29 peak of 909, and slightly down from 76 on Sunday, but media said South Korea uncovered the second largest cluster in the area near its capital. (3/15)

The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that Europe is now the world's COVID-19 pandemic epicenter, as cases in Italy and other nations on the continent soared, and as the WHO launched a new fundraising effort designed to expand donations from individuals and businesses to support the response. At a media briefing today, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said global deaths from the novel coronavirus have reached 5,000, most of which are from China. But Europe is now reporting more cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, except for China. (Schnirring, 3/13)

The three giant drug distributors are negotiating a deal with the states to end thousands of opioid lawsuits nationwide, in which they would pay $19.2 billion over 18 years and immediately submit to stringent monitoring requirements to assure that suspicious orders for prescription opioids would be halted. But although pressure is building to settle the costly, protracted litigation and bring relief to communities hit hard by addiction and overdose deaths, another group of plaintiffs is objecting strongly to the terms of the deal. Cities and counties, which have brought far more cases than state governments, say they are being blindsided by state attorneys general because the proposed agreement would give states control over the money that would trickle down to them. (Hoffman, 3/13)

Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) announced Sunday that he would withdraw from public life and seek treatment for alcohol abuse after being discovered intoxicated alongside a man suspected of overdosing on crystal meth in a Miami hotel room. In a statement, the former 2018 candidate for Florida governor admitted to developing an alcohol addiction after losing to now-Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and declared that he would seek treatment. (Bowden, 3/15)

What has happened in Italy shows that less-than-urgent appeals to the public by the government to slightly change habits regarding social interactions aren’t enough when the terrible outcomes they are designed to prevent are not yet apparent; when they become evident, it’s generally too late to act. I and many other Italians just didn’t see the need to change our routines for a threat we could not see. (Mattia Ferraresi, 3/13)

Social distancing — canceling large gatherings, closing schools and offices, quarantining individuals and even sequestering entire cities or neighborhoods — seems to be the best way to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But it’s a crude and costly public health strategy. Shuttering shared spaces and institutions means families lose child care, wages and social support. What’s more, it’s insufficient to protect the older, sick, homeless and isolated people who are most vulnerable to the virus. They need extra care and attention to survive, not society’s back. (Eric Klinenberg, 3/14)

Our health system will not be able to cope with the projected numbers of people who will need acute care should we not muster the fortitude and will to socially distance each other starting now. On a regular day, we have about 45,000 staffed ICU beds nationally, which can be ramped up in a crisis to about 95,000. Even moderate projections suggest that if current infectious trends hold, our capacity (locally and nationally) may be overwhelmed as early as mid-late April. Thus, the only strategies that can get us off this concerning trajectory are those that enable us to work together as a community to maintain public health by staying apart. (Asaf Bitton, 3/14)

The wisdom, and necessity, of this more aggressive, early, and extreme form of social distancing can be found in various articles published recently. These statistical models drive home the point about what we need to do now to avoid a worse crisis later. Historical lessons and experiences of countries worldwide have shown us that taking these actions early can have a dramatic impact on the magnitude of the outbreak. So what does this enhanced form of social distancing mean on a daily basis, when schools are canceled? (Asaf Bitton, 3/14)

Patient concerns about COVID-19 have colored almost every session I've conducted in my practice for the last week, no matter who the client was and no matter what problems had brought them into therapy to begin with. But one concern kept coming up for my single clients — as well as friends and colleagues who live alone — in particular: the isolation they expected to experience while working from home if (or more likely when) their offices closed for health reasons. (F. Diane Barth, 3/15)

A cruise ship with passengers in isolation has been denied entry at Caribbean ports. Nike and Urban Outfitters joined Apple and other retailers closing down stores... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended late Sunday that all gatherings of 50 or more people be canceled or postponed for at least the next eight weeks. But it feels like a lot of the country has followed a good portion of the world and shut down itself already. (Zachary B. Wolf and Paul LeBlanc, 3/15)

Everyone is nervous and worried that we will be the next Italy, a country on lockdown with 21,157 cases and 1,441 deaths, 368 of them over the past day. If we are worried, that means our children are worried, and the question comes up over and over, what to tell them? For starters, as I wrote in my book, "False Alarm, the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear," if we show our children that we are worried or unsure, then they will worry too. Which is not to say that we should hide the truth or pretend that all is OK. But if we demonstrate courage or the ability to laugh or love in the face of a looming threat, our children will see that too and emulate it. (Marc Siegel, 3/15)

While it is true that many schools and businesses have closed and numerous activities, sporting events, and conferences have been canceled, there is still an undercurrent of denial and skepticism about the warnings. The fact is we are no longer at a point where containment is an option. Rather, our focus must be on mitigating the spread and impact of the coronavirus as much as possible. This can happen only if our communities and our nation heed the clear and horrifying warnings coming out of China, Italy, and Iran — we must act fast and now to prevent the same kind of catastrophic scenario from happening here. (3/13)

In his recent Oval Office speech, President Trump pledged that Americans won’t receive surprise bills for their coronavirus testing. The goal is good; we need people who are lightly symptomatic to be tested without fear of high personal costs. But it was an empty promise. Unless swift action is taken, surprise bills are coming. And they could exacerbate a public health crisis that is already threatening to spiral out of control. (David Anderson and Nicholas Bagley, 3/15)

Anxiety is a strange beast. As a psychiatrist, I have learned that anxiety and its close cousin, panic, are both born from fear. As a behavioral neuroscientist, I know that fear’s main evolutionary function is helping us survive. In fact, fear is the oldest survival mechanism we have. Fear helps us learn to avoid dangerous situations in the future through a process called negative reinforcement. (Judson Brewer, 3/13)

After the stock market collapsed in late 1929, many people in the United States lost their jobs. By 1932, one in four Americans was suffering from lack of food. President Hoover, enamored of the efficiency of the private market and suspicious of all foreign countries, raised tariffs and waited, confident that the market would recover and all would be well again. Government intervention, he warned, would plunge the country “into socialism and collectivism.” The world seemed dark. With the COVID-19 crisis growing worse by the hour, the federal government’s colossal mishandling of it from the start — with faulty and too few tests and President Trump’s false claims that the virus was contained — may finally wake up our complacent country. (Susan Crawford, 3/14)

As we find ourselves in the midst of a terrifying pandemic — which already claimed the lives of thousands across the globe and severely crippled financial markets — members of Congress scramble to offer Americans some degree of economic relief. The "New York Times" listed all the ways in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to stimulate an economy and help those who are most vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19: “The legislation...will include enhanced unemployment benefits, free virus testing, aid for food assistance programs and federal funds for Medicaid. The package also ensures 14 days of paid sick leave, as well as tax credits to help small — and medium-size businesses fulfill that mandate.” (Ana Kasparian, 3/15)

The coronavirus pandemic is now upon us, and data from other countries shows us clearly where we are headed. Every country affected by this crisis has handled it on a national basis. The United States has not. State and local governments alone simply do not have the capacity or resources to do what is necessary, and we don’t want a patchwork quilt of policies. (New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 3/15)

There is something we can do immediately that will dramatically help hospitals free up beds and medical equipment to help those suffering from covid-19. This proposal will save lives the minute that states and other authorities adopt it. We are in urgent need of emergency laws, or executive orders, in every state that temporarily relax the legal standard of medical malpractice. (Jeremy Samuel Faust, 3/15)

The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Levels of uncertainty are high, and Americans are looking to elected officials, particularly in the federal government, for leadership and direction now more than ever. This will no doubt be the greatest leadership test that Donald Trump will face as president. His handling of this crisis will not only define his legacy in the White House, but will also make or break his chances for reelection. (Douglas Schoen, 3/15)

When President Trump took office in 2017, the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense survived the transition intact. Its mission was the same as when I was asked to lead the office, established after the Ebola epidemic of 2014: to do everything possible within the vast powers and resources of the U.S. government to prepare for the next disease outbreak and prevent it from becoming an epidemic or pandemic. One year later, I was mystified when the White House dissolved the office, leaving the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19. (Beth Cameron, 3/11)

President Trump says 1.4 million tests for the novel coronavirus will become available this week. That’s welcome news. But officials are about to make a mistake. The president said testing will be limited to people who believe they may be infected. “We don’t want everybody taking this test, it’s totally unnecessary,” he said. This would make sense if there were a cure. Without one, this strategy won’t curtail either the epidemic or the anxiety associated with it. We will continue to bleed billions of dollars in economic costs from disruption of normal life. (3/15)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday night celebrated the coronavirus legislation that passed early Saturday as providing paid sick leave to American workers affected by the pandemic.She neglected to mention the fine print. In fact, the bill guarantees sick leave only to about 20 percent of workers. Big employers like McDonald’s and Amazon are not required to provide any paid sick leave, while companies with fewer than 50 employees can seek hardship exemptions from the Trump administration. (3/14)

In an effort to address the coronavirus crisis the House passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on Friday. The vote was bipartisan and President Trump is supportive. Among other things, the bill provides paid medical leave for the employees of small businesses (500 or fewer employees) impacted by the coronavirus, with the federal government reimbursing employers for those costs. Almost immediately, there was an adverse reaction from America’s small business community. Their concerns were understandable but, as it turns out, largely unwarranted. Because of the coronavirus, small businesses are suffering from dramatic sales declines, supply chain disruptions and vanishing cash flow. (Bernie Marcus and Andy Puzder, 3/16)

President Trump made his first public comments about the coronavirus on Jan. 22, in a television interview from Davos with CNBC’s Joe Kernen. The first American case had been announced the day before, and Kernen asked Trump, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?” The president responded: “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” (David Leonhardt, 3/15)

Like thousands of Americans and Europeans scrambling to get to the United States before the travel ban went into effect and flights were canceled, I flew back to the United States from Vienna on Friday. Arriving at Dulles International Airport via London, I encountered a case study in how to spread a pandemic. I had thought I was lucky to get one of the last seats home. And I was confident, because Dulles had been identified by the administration as one of the handful of U.S. airports equipped to test arriving passengers and admit or quarantine them accordingly, that I would find a rigorous protocol in place upon arrival. Obviously, the administration would not take such a momentous step without solid preparation. (Cheryl Benard, 3/15)

Well, I'm back. My month working in Paris came to a slightly premature end shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday (9 p.m. Wednesday in New York). I had heard President Donald Trump on CNN International, announcing that all folks coming from Europe would be barred entry into the US beginning midnight Friday, and quickly began to re-think my plans. (David A. Andelman, 3/16)

Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm, who warned in 2005 that "time is running out to prepare for the next pandemic," said in a conversation with Peter Bergen that America faces a huge challenge: "We are worse off today than we were in 2017 because the health care system is stretched thinner now than ever. There is no excess capacity. And public health funding has been cut under this administration." (Richard Galant, 3/15)

Last week, while seeing a patient in the emergency department of Stanford Hospital, I witnessed the well-orchestrated commotion that follows a suspected case of coronavirus. Masked nurses, doctors, and janitors quickly isolated the patient and began disinfecting surfaces. A technician who had been in contact with the patient on transport nervously asked the staff, “How will I find out if they test positive? Who will tell me?” Fear, contained only by the bounds of professionalism, coursed through the department as if by infusion. I felt it as a bystander, a medical student passing through the emergency department on my psychiatry rotation. The psych resident and I had come to see a man with auditory hallucinations. We rushed past the viral activity en route to our patient’s room. As I took in the scene, I thought, “Should I be here?” (Orly Nadell Farber, 3/14)

Paying $70 billion for unlimited use of a Covid-19 vaccine is much better than paying $7 trillion — about how much the US stock market has lost since Feb. 19. A little math can mean having a large arsenal of treatments and vaccines for the next coronavirus and avoiding death, hospitalizations, disruptions, and catastrophic economic losses. (Amitabh Chandra, 3/13)

As a doctor working in a Los Angeles public hospital, I don’t have the choice of telecommuting or working from home. My colleagues and I have a moral commitment to care for the sick and try to save lives. This is a profession we happily chose, knowing the risks involved, but we used to feel adequately protected. Today, with a raging global pandemic, we don’t.In the hard-hit Italian region of Lombardy, 20% of the healthcare workers have been infected by COVID-19. Every time another one of them falls ill, that’s one fewer person to treat sick patients. (Erica Patel, 3/15)

The last major sporting event in North America was played last Thursday, one last spring baseball game wrapping up just in time for Major League Baseball's self-imposed 4 p.m. deadline. My parents — ignoring my pleas about social distancing (boomers!) — were at that game, between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Miami Marlins in Jupiter, Florida, drinking Bud Lights and eating hot dogs like everything was normal and fine. And my son and I watched the last pitch, a strikeout by Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos, on television, miles away, knowing it'd be the last strikeout we'd be seeing for a while. Professional athletics is a billion-dollar global industry, but it has proved no match for the coronavirus pandemic. (Will Leitch, 3/16)