May 18, 2020 — A roundup of the latest news about COVID-19
Two months into the United States’ fight against the pandemic, neither the health nor the economic war has been won. Transit workers risk their own lives to get front-line workers to their jobs. And attending church brings risks and rewards. Get caught up with the coronavirus developments from the last 72 hours:
Over the weekend numbers spiked again, at home and abroad. Worldwide we now have more than 4.7 million confirmed cases, with more than 315,000 deaths and 1.7 million recoveries. In the U.S. we’ll pass 1.5 million cases today — we still account for almost one-third of the world’s total. Nearly 90,000 people have died here, and another 272,000 have recovered.
Tests for the virus finally are becoming widely available, a crucial step toward lifting stay-at-home orders and safely returning to normal life. But while many states no longer report crippling supply shortages, a new problem has emerged: too few people lining up to get tested.
Across the U.S., an estimated 430,000 public transit workers, including train operators and bus drivers, have kept systems operating, moving essential workers such as doctors, nurses and first responders. COVID-19 has sickened or killed transit workers in nearly every major system in the country.
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in U.S. jails and prisons, but testing of inmates and staff remains spotty and many confirmed cases are going unreported. The resulting lack of data has deep implications for the fight against the virus, because prison outbreaks can move easily to surrounding communities.
Eric Trump claimed Saturday that the coronavirus will “magically” vanish after the November election and allow the country to fully reopen — an assertion that has no basis in science and is contradicted by health experts worldwide.
Last weekend, a person who later learned they were positive for COVID-19 attended a California religious service, exposing 180 other people to the novel coronavirus. Yesterday, on the first Sunday congregations could reopen in Virginia, a church called Hopeful Baptist lived up to its name.
There’s been growing pressure from business owners in adjacent towns to reopen America’s most popular national parks, even as many states still have travel restrictions and continue to see rising cases of coronavirus. Yellowstone, the country’s first national park and one of its most popular, will begin a phased reopening today.
Europe reopened more widely today, allowing people into the Acropolis in Athens, shops in Italy, markets and museums in Belgium, golf courses in Ireland, and beer gardens in Bavaria, while its leaders discussed how to salvage Europe’s hallowed summer vacations.
Snoop Dogg uses “Frozen” to encourage people to “let it go” — and Idina Menzel responds.
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