With many Americans worried about safely restarting their lives, the Centers for Disease Control and anticipation issued six pages of endorsements to guide schools, businesses and others into the next phase of the novel coronavirus epidemic. The scant guidelines came after many states had already begun to lift restrictions on their own and were far less detailed than draft recommendations the agency sent to the White House for review.
Meanwhile, as the confirmed U.S. death toll surpassed 85,000 on Thursday, Rick Bright, a former top U.S. vaccine official, warned Congress that the nation faces the “darkest winter in modern history” if the government does not develop a more coordinated coronavirus response.
Here are some significant developments:
- Democrats are gearing up to push a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill through the House on Friday. The regulation, which would boost subsidy for state and local governments as well as the U.S. Postal Service, faces road blocks in the Senate, and President Trump has endangered a veto.
- For some states, including New York and Oregon, Friday will mark the start of a piecemeal approach to reopening as restrictions remain in some areas while being eased in counties with smaller populations and few coronavirus infections.
- The Food and Drug Administration warned of inaccuracies in the rapid Abbott coronavirus test hailed by Trump and used by the White House.
- Nearly 3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of jobless claims in the past eight weeks to a staggering 36.5 million.
- Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) stepped down as Intelligence Committee chairman after federal agents seized his cellphone for an ongoing investigation into whether he deliberately dumped stocks before the pandemic rocked global markets.
Trump announced a plan to reconfigure the chronically undersupplied national stockpile of emergency gear as two witnesses said in congressional testimony that lives were lost because front-line workers lacked protective equipment.
