Axios

Few moments better capture the world into which we've slipped than the decision of one man to order 1.4 billion into lockdown.

Why it matters: India’s three-week lockdown is the largest ever attempted, and it sparked South Asia's greatest migration since partition in 1947. While the economic effects could be devastating, the public health crisis it's intended to fend off could be more destructive still.

The Pentagon on Monday announced the death of a member of the New Jersey National Guard who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Why it matters: It's the first U.S. service member — active, reserve or Guard — to die from the virus, according to the Pentagon. The guardsman passed away on Saturday after being hospitalized for the novel coronavirus on March 21.

A federal judge Monday temporarily blocked a provision of Texas' coronavirus response that prohibited most abortions, the Statesman reports.

The big picture: Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order on March 22 banning elective procedures in the state as a means to save medical supplies like masks and gowns for coronavirus cases. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said one day later that the order applied to abortions unless the woman's life was at risk.

If you thought March felt like the longest month in American history, just wait for April and May, when people will be forced to witness spring from the indoors.

The big picture: 28 states are in or entering lockdown, with Maryland and Virginia joining those ranks today. So is D.C., as its mayor made official this afternoon. Those states include roughly 3/4 of the American people, the N.Y. Times notes.

Ford and GE Healthcare announced plans to build a simplified ventilator design licensed from a Florida medical technology company, with the goal of producing 50,000 machines by early July, and up to 30,000 a month thereafter, to fight the coronavirus.

Why it matters: The companies are moving in "Trump time" to meet demand for urgently needed ventilators, says White House Defense Production Act Coordinator Peter Navarro. But with deaths expected to peak in two weeks, the machines won't arrive in large numbers in time to help the hardest-hit cities.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that she was diagnosed with "presumed" coronavirus just days after she was on the House floor and attended Speaker Nancy Pelosi's signing ceremony for the stimulus bill last week.

The state of play: Velazquez, 67, said in a statement that her symptoms are mild and that she will isolate in her home. She added that, per guidance from Congress' attending physician, she would not seek laboratory testing to confirm the diagnosis.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a Monday press briefing that he won't get into a political tussle with President Trump — calling it "counterproductive" and "anti-American" — as his state deals with the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the country.

The backdrop: Trump said during an appearance on "Fox & Friends" earlier Monday that Cuomo has received high polling numbers during the outbreak because New York has received federal aid.

Florida's Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister issued a warrant for the arrest of megachurch pastor Rodney Howard-Browne on Monday after he refused to cancel his packed services and obey coronavirus social distancing orders.

The big picture: With at least 5,000 cases and 60 deaths as of Monday morning, Florida is a growing epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak. Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, but a Hillsborough County order that took effect last week prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Monday that he would enter self-isolation after an aide tested positive for coronavirus.

The latest: Netanyahu was tested for the virus on Monday, along with his wife, sons and close aides. All of those tests came back negative, his office said, but he plans to remain in isolation until he receives further instructions from the ministry of health.

Over 143,000 people in the U.S. have now tested positive for the coronavirus. Among them is Axios co-founder and president Roy Schwartz, who joins Dan to discuss his unusual symptoms, his hospital experience and the complications of quarantining with a family.

Macy's will furlough the majority of its workers this week, as the company's stores remain closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Details: Macy's sales have seen a drastic decline, having shuttered its stores on March 18. The company employs about 130,000 people, per the Journal. It will retain workers for its e-commerce operations, distribution and call centers. The chain told staff it will continue to cover 100% of its employees' health care premiums at least through May.

Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort docked Monday in New York as it prepares to begin assisting the medical needs of the city's citizens due to the strain on the health care system from the coronavirus pandemic.

Why it matters: The ship's nearly 1,000 hospital beds — which will be used to house non-coronavirus patients — will help reduce severe shortages the state has been experiencing with more than 60,000 confirmed cases.

Some Instacart workers plan to go on strike today, arguing that the grocery delivery unicorn's recent increases in pay and safety equipment are insufficient.

Why it matters: Instacart has become a lifeline for many Americans either unable or unwilling to leave their homes, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

Microsoft says it has seen some significant spikes in some applications where there are shelter-in-place or social distancing rules.

Why it matters: The increased cloud demand adds to the strain on the internet, but companies whose key apps are in the cloud are far more easily able to accommodate a remote workforce than those that rely on their own servers.

Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, told NBC's "Today" Monday that a projection of 100,000–200,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths is based on the presumption that citizens follow social-distancing guidelines "almost perfectly."

Why it matters: Birx said she is unsure that people are following the guidelines and cited images circulating online of people around the world congregating in large groups.

Hungary's parliament passed a law Monday to allow Prime Minister Viktor Orbán almost unlimited power, for an indefinite period, to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Why it matters: Hungary has taken a sharply authoritarian turn over the past decade under Orbán, and its likely that he and other strongman leaders around the world will seek to maintain powers they gain during the current crisis long after it's over.

It's notable that Twitter, like other social networks, has announced stricter rules on virus-related misinformation than other types of false posts. Even more notable, though, is that Twitter has actually enforced its rules against prominent accounts in recent days.

Why it matters: Twitter has been criticized for being lax to enforce its rules, particularly against well-known politicians and celebrities.

When the Premier League season was suspended, Liverpool had a 25-point lead atop the standings and was two wins away from securing the league title, which would have been the club's first in 30 years.

Driving the news: Multiple Premier League clubs want to end the current campaign immediately and replay it in full once it's deemed safe, which would deny Liverpool the league trophy it so clearly deserves, The Athletic's David Ornstein reports.

Sports are on pause, and there's no timetable for their return. In the interim, leagues, teams and athletes are getting creative with ways to keep fans engaged.

The latest: A "quarantined reality show basketball tournament," courtesy of the BIG3, the upstart 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Ice Cube and his longtime business partner Jeff Kwatinetz.

President Trump brushed aside allegations that China — as well as Russia and Iran — are spreading misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus during a 64-minute call with "Fox & Friends" on Monday, telling the hosts that "every country does it."

Why it matters: Multiple verified Chinese government Twitter accounts have promoted different conspiracy theories, and Chinese foreign ministry deputy spokesperson Zhao Lijian suggested that the virus come from a U.S. military lab, Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports.

Traveling locust swarms in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, that had reached the size of Manhattan in some places, are still growing in East Africa, and the problem is now compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Driving the news: New cases of coronavirus have been discovered in much of the region this month, and the pandemic also is slowing the delivery of pesticides that can kill the insects.

New data from CivicScience show Americans remained calm about their retirement savings between late January and mid-March, despite significant losses in the stock market.

The intrigue: Bank of America Securities' Bull & Bear indicator has fallen to its lowest possible level, zero, indicating a strong buy signal.

As traders around the globe have frantically unloaded positions in recent weeks, so-called mom and pop retail investors have kept level heads and not sold out of stocks.

What they're saying: In fact, "the typical trader is buying equities on the dips," passive investment firm Vanguard notes in a research paper, adding that "older, wealthier traders are moving modestly to fixed income."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Monday that President Trump decided to extend social distancing restrictions for another 30 days after viewing models projecting coronavirus deaths over the weekend.

Why it matters: The models project that the virus will infect millions of Americans and could kill 100,000 to 200,000 even with current guidelines in place, Fauci said Sunday.

Mark Zuckerberg, signaling his personal involvement in a new Facebook commitment of $100 million to bolstering local journalism, told me that "very local work" is vital to his big mission of bringing the world closer together.

What he's saying: "Everyone believes that local journalism is incredibly important," Zuckerberg told Axios in a phone interview. "But everyone is connected to their local [outlets]. Figuring out how to make an impact, and support local journalism broadly and at scale, has been a challenge."

Facebook says it is spending $100 million to support news outlets around the world that have been impacted by the coronavirus, the company said Monday.

Why it matters: Whatever Facebook's motivation, this is a much-needed cash infusion at a critical time for the local news industry.

There are now a lot of known knowns about the coronavirus: It's here, it's spreading, it's stressing hospitals, it's crippling the economy, it's slowed only by distance and isolation — and it's sure to get much worse before it gets much better. 

Why it matters: Similarly, there is a sameness to the patterns and known unknowns. So now we hit the maddening stage of waiting.

Several parts of the country have not been overwhelmed by coronavirus cases yet, but hospitals are sitting in what they view as the calm before the storm.

The bottom line: Health care workers in these relatively quiet areas are urging people to stay home for the foreseeable future so they don't become the next coronavirus hotspot.

A record 3.3 million people filed for unemployment in one week, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but people didn't just lose their jobs. Many also lost the health insurance that came with the job.

Why it matters: U.S. workers, even those who feel relatively secure in their health benefits, are a pandemic away from falling into the ranks of the uninsured.

President Trump asked Americans to continue social distancing until April 30, officials warned that tens or even hundreds of thousands of Americans could die — and that's the least depressing scenario.

Why it matters: April is going to be very hard. But public health officials are in agreement that hunkering down — in our own homes — and weathering one of the darkest months in American history is the only way to prevent millions of American deaths.

The coronavirus pandemic is helping shift policy priorities for some Americans, according to results from an online caucus the Glover Park Group provided to Axios.

Why it matters: Crises can force the nation to acknowledge bipartisan problems that are often neglected due to lack of a political motivation to solve them.

The shortage of hospital beds in the U.S. didn't happen by accident. It's a result of both market pressures and public policy.

Why it matters: The bed shortage is one of many factors complicating America's response to the new coronavirus. But if we want to have more beds and critical equipment on hand for the next pandemic, the government will need to make it happen — and pay for it.

The novel coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on the lives of people around the world.

The big picture: The first known case outside China was in Thailand on Jan. 13. Since then, governments around the world have responded to surging case numbers with a range of measures designed to curb the spread of the virus. There were more than 723,000 confirmed COVID-19 infections by early Monday, per Johns Hopkins data.

President Trump claimed during a briefing at the White House on Sunday that some hospitals and health care workers were "hoarding equipment, including ventilators" and suggested reporters and states look into the increased demand for masks.

Details: Trump's comments drew criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and the Greater New York Hospital Association, which said health care workers "deserve better than their president suggesting that PPE is 'going out the back door' of New York hospitals," in reference to Trump singling out an unnamed state hospital to question why they were using so many masks.