May 2, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Trump says there are enough coronavirus tests for the Senate

President Trump in the White House on May 1. Photo: Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images

President Trump on Saturday claimed that there are enough coronavirus tests for senators returning this week to Washington, D.C.

Driving the news: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Twitter late Friday that the agency would send three Abbott point of care machines and 1,000 coronavirus tests for the Senate's use, after the Capitol's attending physician said he did not have enough equipment for widespread testing of all senators.

Go deeper: Dianne Feinstein urges McConnell not to recall Senate during pandemic

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Rebecca Falconer
17 hours ago - Health

Nurses rally nationwide to demand protection amid pandemic

Healthcare workers on their way to work walk past demonstrators taking part in a national day of action in Miami on Wednesday. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Nurses took more than 200 active demonstrations inside and outside U.S. hospital facilities in at least 16 states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday to demand full personal protective equipment and federal government action.

Driving the news: National Nurses United (NNU) members are demanding that the Senate pass the HEROES Act, House Democrats' $3 trillion pandemic recovery package, which they said would protect health care workers by ensuring domestic production of PPE through the Defense Production Act.

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Rashaan Ayesh
21 hours ago - Health

Fauci calls U.S. coronavirus testing delays "totally unacceptable"

NIAID director Anthony Fauci told CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday that it is "totally unacceptable" that Gupta was unable to test a patient for the coronavirus before operating on them.

Why it matters: Mass delays in coronavirus test results across the U.S. have thwarted mitigation efforts recommended by public health experts, per the New York Times. In absence of a federal plan, a bipartisan group of governors on Tuesday proposed one of the country's first interstate testing strategies.

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Axios
Updated 12 hours ago - Health

World coronavirus updates

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Axios VisualsThe

The Philippines' economy sunk into recession as its gross domestic product shrank 16.5% in the second quarter — marking the lowest reading since 1981, official figures show.

The big picture: Millions of Filipinos went on lockdown Tuesday as cases surged past 106,300, with stay-at-home orders in place for two weeks in Manila and nearby provinces on the island of Luzon, per the BBC. The economy's contraction is the "deepest" on record, Bloomberg notes.

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