New tests could show past infection . . . Health departments, hospitals and companies around the world are rolling out the next wave in Covid-19 testing, which looks in a person’s blood for signs of past infection. The new tests promise to give public-health and hospital officials a better idea of how widely the virus has spread and who can safely treat patients and stop social distancing. But uncertainty about the accuracy of some of the tests and unknowns surrounding immunity to Covid-19—the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus—could limit their usefulness, at least early on. “To date, we have had no clue how many people have been infected,” said Eran Bendavid, an infectious-disease physician at Stanford University. “This could be an extraordinarily important piece of how we’re going to get over this epidemic.” Wall Street Journal

 

Virus sweeping through jails . . . Thousands of potentially vulnerable inmates were set free or sent to home confinement to reduce the risk of large-scale outbreaks. Visitation was halted, and isolation wards were designated for those who would be exposed. Chicago's Cook County Jail, one of the largest in the country, reported 251 prisoner infections and one death as of Thursday. After announcing its first infection more than two weeks ago, the federal Bureau of Prisons had 284 infected inmates and eight deaths as of Thursday morning. At least 169 sick inmates were in medical isolation Thursday in Texas, and more than 28,000 have been assigned some form of medical restriction limiting their movements because they may have been exposed to COVID-19. USA Today

 

 

Hospital ship, Javits Center nearly empty amid coronavirus . . . 

The USNS Comfort and the Javits Center field hospital remain practically empty of COVID-19 patients as both Department of Defense-run facilities strictly manage intake while getting up to speed — to the frustration of medical staffers at swamped city emergency rooms. The Navy-manned, 500-bed Comfort, which docked last week on the city’s West Side — and was  this week reconfigured to take high-severity coronavirus cases — has just over 60 patients, Navy officials said Thursday. And the Army-manned, 1,000-bed Javits Center field hospital — now serving lower-severity COVID-19 cases — had only 225 patients, officials said Thursday. New York Post

 

Men are waiting too long to get tested . . . Men are lagging behind women in seeking help for COVID-19 symptoms despite being more likely to test positive, according to statistics collected by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Data from the United States, China, and Italy suggest men are more likely to die from the illness, and health officials are intent on overturning the traditional male reluctance to visit the doctor. President Trump announced on Thursday that the U.S. had conducted more than two million tests as health officials battle a pandemic that has killed 1600 people.

But Dr. Deborah Birx, a global health expert and the task force coordinator, said men needed to do a better job of getting help. Washington Examiner

 

We don't ask for directions, either.

 

 

Pence reverses ban on Fauci going on CNN

 

New round of stimulus talks faces GOP resistance . . . Senate Republicans on Thursday signaled they won’t be ready to launch into another round of economic stimulus talks until next month. The GOP resistance puts a damper on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer’s (N.Y.) efforts to seize the political momentum on a phase-four coronavirus relief package. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday said he’s not opposed to more money for hospitals and health care providers “down the line” but said Democrats are already asking for money for programs that have yet to receive funding allocated for them in the CARES Act, which became law March 27. The Hill

 

Ivanka among those touted for new WH recovery task force . . . 

Names proposed for a new coronavirus task force to focus on reopening the economy include Ivanka Trump, as well as advisers such as Kevin Hassett and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Three insiders familiar with the plans say it will include leaders from the private sector and the sports and entertainment worlds, as well as administration officials. President Trump has made clear his desire to lift social distancing restrictions as rapidly as possible in an effort to begin the business of rebuilding amid concerns that the small businesses and the voters that make up his base could be hardest hit.

Ivanka Trump would bring her expertise to the area of job training, said a former administration official, either on the task force or as an adviser. Washington Examiner

 

Biden and Trump agree not to talk about call. Then Biden talks all about it . . . Biden said during his first interview after the call that he and Trump agreed they "wouldn't go into detail" on what was said during the call between the political rivals. Biden in the days since has laid out the specifics of the five suggestions he made to Trump on how the administration could improve its coronavirus response and even began to detail to donors at a fundraiser how Trump responded.

Trump himself has declined to go into detail on what the two discussed during the call, saying the two agreed not to discuss it publicly. "We agreed that we weren’t going to talk about what we said, but we had a very, very good talk," the president said on Monday during his daily White House briefing on the coronavirus. Washington Free Beacon

 

Lindsey Graham: Senate should punish China . . . Graham said, “The first thing I want to do is get the United States Senate on the record where we, we don’t blame Trump, we blame China. The Chinese government is responsible for 16,000 American deaths and 17 million Americans being unemployed. It’s the Chinese government and the way they behave that led to this pandemic. This is the third one to come out of China. I want to make our response to this so overwhelming that China will change its behavior.” He added, “I want to get the medical supply chain back into the United States. I want to stop counseling some debt that we owe to China because they should be paying us. So I think you will see a bipartisan push back against China to punish them so severely to deter them in the future.” Breitbart

 

Boris Johnson, out of ICU, "almost took one for the team," dad says . . . The U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson “almost took one for the team,” his father said, as the leader continues to recover from coronavirus in hospital after a spell in intensive care. Johnson was hospitalized 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus last weekend, and was moved to intensive care as his condition deteriorated on Monday. But the prime minister has now been moved back to the main ward at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, with Downing Street saying that the prime minister “will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery." And Johnson’s father, Stanley, told the BBC Friday that the prime minister must “rest up” before returning to lead the country. ABC News

 

Prince Charles marks anniversary with Camilla after coronavirus recovery . . . Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary Thursday, weeks after it was revealed the 71-year-old royal tested positive for coronavirus.In a photo posted Wednesday from Clarence House, the couple’s official Instagram account, the pair posed together from their Scottish Birkhall estate with their pets. Charles and Camilla, 72, married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle on April 9, 2005. In late March, Clarence House confirmed Charles tested positive for coronavirus. The heir to the British throne had experienced “mild symptoms” and was self-isolating at his Burnham home in Scotland. Charles was out of self-isolation a week later, per reports. New York Post

 

Dire economic numbers intensify debate on lifting restrictions . . . Record-setting jobless claims and dire economic forecasts are giving fresh urgency to the debate within the Trump administration and across the country over how rapidly coronavirus-fueled restrictions should be pared back so the economy can begin its revival. President Trump has expressed eagerness to move quickly, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC Thursday that he thought the U.S. economy could be ready to reopen by the end of May, “as soon as the president feels comfortable with the medical issues.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell also nodded to growing debate. “I do think it’s time to have a serious public conversation and a lot of analysis about that,” he said Thursday in an interview webcast by the Brookings Institution. “We need to have a plan nationally for reopening the economy. We all want it to happen as quickly as possible.” As for when it would be safe for businesses to reopen and for people to go back to work, Mr. Powell said “most people expect that to happen in the second half of this year, after the second quarter, which of course ends on June 30.” He declined to be more specific. WSJ

 

High unemployment could last a year . . . After a widely expected and sharp drop in the U.S. economy over the next three months, a panel of top business economists sees high joblessness persisting for more than a year in an outcome that would douse hopes for a quick, post-pandemic return to normal. The number of jobs destroyed by the U.S. economy's crisis-driven sudden stop could top 4.5 million, according to the median estimate of 45 forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics. Fewer than 2 million of those positions will be recovered by the end of 2021, the economists expect, pushing the unemployment rate above 6 percent for the next 21 months in a massive blow to a labor market that had been considered among the best for workers in decades. Fox Business

 

Trump may offer airline bailout by the weekend

 

Mexico puts Russia-Saudi oil deal at risk . . . Mexico has exited talks on a massive oil production deal involving a group of 23 countries, jeopardizing the final pact and causing the price of oil to fall drastically. There were hopes Thursday that the end of a month-long feud between Saudi Arabia and Russia would lead to a final resolution on the 23-nation coalition which aims to implement massive oil-production cuts. OPEC+, Russia and other allies outlined plans on Thursday to cut their oil output by more than a fifth and said they expected the United States and other producers to join in their effort to prop up prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis. Mexico's sudden departure has now endangered the historic agreement and caused a drop in oil prices. Daily Mail

 

Six thousand families line up cars for hours at food bank . . . The San Antonio Food Bank distributed one million pounds of food to roughly 6,000 families in a single day as millions across the country turn to charity organizations to avoid going hungry amid coronavirus lockdowns.  Stunning aerial photos show thousands of cars lined up at Trader's Plaza in San Antonio during the massive food distribution event on Thursday.  Families in need waited hours to get their hands on fresh fruit, vegetables and other non-perishable goods that have become hard to find in traditional stores as panic-buying leaves shelves empty. Daily Mail

 

Woman arrested for leaving porn-filled Easter egges in mailboxes . . . A woman was arrested Wednesday for allegedly putting Easter eggs containing explicit content into residents’ mailboxes in Flagler County, Florida. In a press release Thursday, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said it had received numerous calls from people who found the plastic eggs inside their mailboxes since Sunday. The eggs reportedly contained “pornographic images, non-threatening references to local churches and county buildings, and other miscellaneous items,” the release stated. Breitbart