Democrats fret as Joe Biden becomes ‘irrelevant’ in coronavirus crisis

Just days after his commanding primary victories in Florida, Arizona and Illinois, the coronavirus has turned former Vice President Joe Biden into a virtual prisoner of his Delaware home, where he’s reduced to sniping at President Trump from the family rec room.
“He’s making himself irrelevant,” Saikat Chakrabarti, a former chief of staff to Queens Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, told The Post, saying the virtual broadcasts were not helping. “We need action immediately, and Biden can’t do anything real right now.”

“He’s making himself irrelevant. We need action immediately, and Biden can’t do anything real right now.”
— Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Biden has been forced to watch from the sidelines as President Trump steals the spotlight with daily coronavirus briefings that have been a ratings smash.
Though some experts have criticized the president for spreading inaccurate information and promoting untested antibiotics during his briefings, polls suggest Americans are increasingly pleased with his performance handling the deadly pandemic.
The latest findings from Gallup show the president with a 49% approval rating, approaching a career high he last enjoyed in February during the height of his Senate impeachment trial. The same survey found 60% of Americans now approve of his handling of the coronavirus crisis, including more than a quarter of Democrats.
“I think Trump is being seen as handing the pandemic well by the public even though he was too late to start procuring any [personal protective equipment],” Chakrabarti said, explaining the polling bounce, adding that Biden missed his moment to make an impression. “[Trump] is the only one going up every day and talking to the American people.”

“[Trump] is the only one going up every day and talking to the American people.”
— Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Sen. Bernie Sanders — whose challenge to Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination  is sagging — has been in D.C. helping to hammer out trillions of dollars in coronavirus relief spending. The 78-year has also held several in depth coronavirus town halls via Facebook Live.
But Biden has gone nearly dark. Aside from a call with reporters, and a virtual live-stream appearance at a fundraiser on Sunday, the ex-vice president reappeared on television on March 24.
And his appearances have not gone smoothly.
On his first day back on the air, Biden sat for an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. During the brief Q&A, Biden coughed repeatedly into his fist shortly after telling the anchor he had no symptoms of coronavirus and had not been tested. At one point Tapper even scolded the vice president for not directing coughs into his elbow.
The coughing came along with the usual Biden word salads. On “The View” that same day, the former veep told guest co-host Sara Haines that “we have to take care of the cure. That will make the problem worse no matter what.”
He also had an emotional moment during a virtual CNN town hall Friday talking about personal loss and almost gave out his telephone number on live television.
Many Democrats and armchair pundits have unflatteringly compared Biden’s performance with Gov. Cuomo, who has won praise from both sides of the aisle for his smooth command of facts, regular virus updates and tough, no-nonsense approach to defiant New Yorkers. The fervor peaked as the hashtag #PresidentCuomo zipped across Twitter last week.
“He is currently the only Democrat showing leadership in a moment of crisis, at least publicly,” Chakrabarti said. “Cuomo is doing the daily press conference, he’s leading in a way that President Trump was.”
Reps for Biden’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
Though the pandemic has prevented Biden from deploying his famous retail political skills, his campaign has tried to remain active, putting out a blizzard of press statements including his own “action plan to save the economy.”
He’s made overtures to the base even while in isolation, including checking in to DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine” party on Instagram last week and making a virtual appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Thursday.
The campaign is also confident Trump will ultimately botch the coronavirus response.
“Donald Trump’s failure to take this virus seriously in the face of urgent and obvious warning signs will go down as one of most incompetent and ultimately harmful decisions by a president in recent history,” a Biden aide told The Post.
Biden continues to hold a small but enduring lead over Trump in national head-to-head polls, with recent surveys from Emerson, Monmouth and NBCNews/WSJ all showing him out front. A Fox News polls this week gave him a 9 point lead.
Other Democrats said Trump’s 60 percent coronavirus rating should be taken with a grain of salt.
“During the Iran Hostage crisis, Carter had a 67 approval. For a leader in a time of crisis this is a pretty crappy rating. The Bushes both had 90s at one time,” Democratic strategist James Carville told The Post. “I think Biden will win easily. I don’t think it will be particularly close.”

Cuomo threatens lawsuit over Rhode Island crackdown on virus-fleeing New Yorkers

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is threatening to sue Rhode Island over its new coronavirus policy that calls for police to stop cars with New York license plates and has seen National Guard members go door-to-door to ask if anyone has arrived from the Empire State.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo -- like Cuomo, a Democrat -- announced the drastic new policies last week to limit the spread of the coronavirus. New York is the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., confirming more than 52,000 cases of COVID-19 and recording more than 700 deaths.
"I understand the goal ... but there’s a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity," said Cuomo. “We have to keep the ideas and the policies we implement positive rather than reactionary and emotional.”

"There’s a point of absurdity, and I think what Rhode Island did is at that point of absurdity."
— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo

RHODE ISLAND HUNTING DOWN NEW YORKERS SEEKING CORONAVIRUS REFUGE

Andrew Cuomo D-N.Y.,  is threatening to sue Rhode Island after Gov. Gina Raimondo D-R.I., issued the drastic new policies to limit the spread of the virus

He added that he believes the two governors could "work it out."
Raimondo said the policies were intended to make sure people from New York would self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Rhode Island.
“I want to be crystal clear about this: If you're coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine," she said. "The reason for that is because more than half of the cases of coronavirus in America are in New York."

“I want to be crystal clear about this: If you're coming to Rhode Island from New York you are ordered into quarantine."
— Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo

The National Guard started going door-to-door in Rhode Island's coastal area communities on Saturday to inform New Yorkers arriiving in the state about the 14-day quarantine policy.

Rhode Island Air National Guard Sgt. William Randall, left, and Westerly police Officer Howard Mills approach a home in Westerly, R.I., while looking for New York license plates in driveways to inform them of self quarantine orders, March 28, 2020. (Associated Press)

State Police reportedly set up a checkpoint on Interstate 95 in Hope Valley on Friday, where drivers with New York license plates had to stop and provide contact information, WPRI-TV of Providence reported. They were told to self-quarantine for two weeks.
TRUMP SAYS CORONAVIRUS QUARANTINE ON NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, CONNECTICUT NOT NECESSARY, CDC ISSUES 14-DAY 'TRAVEL ADVISORY'
New Yorkers who fail to comply could face fines and jail time, Raimondo said -- although she added it wasn't the goal of her policy.

A member of the Rhode Island National Guard Military Police directs a motorist with New York license plates at a checkpoint on Interstate 95 in Hope Valley, R.I., March 28, 2020, (Associated Press)

Raimondo also ordered her state's residents to stay at home -- with exceptions for getting food, medicine or going to the doctor. Nonessential retail businesses were told to close from Monday until April 13.
Cuomo also spoke about President Trump considering a quarantine for the New York City metro area before the president ultimately decided against the move.
"It would be chaos and mayhem," Cuomo said, according to The Hill. "It's totally opposite everything he's been saying. I don't think it is plausible. I don't think it is legal."
Trump later tweeted that a travel advisory should be administered and not a quarantine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

pandemic and politics cartoons

A walk through town: Families, coronavirus and togetherness

GLEN ALLEN, Va. (AP) — In a quiet suburb just north of Richmond, Virginia, a mother and her three children spend a weekday afternoon planting a small garden of spinach, red cabbage and lettuce. Across town, a dad teaches his kids how to play volleyball on an empty court. In a sprawling park, a father shows his son and daughter the perfect flick of the wrist to skip rocks in a stream.

Similar scenes — idyllic, except for the context — are playing out in communities around the United States. Stuck at home, thrust together, parents and children are navigating the most unsettling of circumstances and finding new ways to connect. This is one community’s story, gathered this week from walks and observations of families keeping to themselves yet still, somehow, managing to remain part of a larger whole.

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With its top-rated schools, bucolic parks and large collection of shops and restaurants, Glen Allen is the kind of place built for families. The once-rural area is now one of the most sought-after suburbs of Richmond, 11 miles (18 kilometers) northwest of the capital. Its population of just under 15,000 gives it a not-too-big and not-too-small feel, and its proximity to Richmond makes it a prime commuter community.

As in so many other American towns, life here has changed since the coronavirus began to spread. Large gatherings are banned. Schools have closed through the rest of the academic year. Countless businesses are shuttered, at least for the time being.

Neighborhoods and parks that are normally deserted on weekdays are now filled with parents and children, out for a walk, run or bike ride together — carefully maintaining distance, but still clearly part of a community. On Wintercreek Drive, families play games together in their own yards and talk to neighbors over backyard fences, standing back at least 6 feet so as not to risk exposure. In Echo Lake Park, families walk their dogs, smile and nod as they pass other dog walkers on a half-mile nature trail.

In Crump Park, an expansive recreation area with large open fields and an 1860 living history farm, families play together in small groups, dotting the landscape with pods of people — each yards apart from the other, observing social distancing guidelines in the age of coronavirus. A father and his preteen son sit by a pond fishing. Two children ride scooters as their dad walks behind them. A family of four spreads out a blanket and has a picnic.

“All their activities — swimming, basketball, volleyball — they’ve all been canceled. That opens up a lot of free time,” says Dwayne Cook, a 52-year-old mortgage broker who has been taking breaks from working at home to go to the park with his two children, Cameron, 14, and Corinne, 12.

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Cook says he spent one trip teaching his kids how to skip rocks in a stream. He and his son also had a pull-up contest on the playground.

“It’s nice to be outside, get some sun and leave the phones in the car,” he says.

Fifty yards away, two kites bob high above a hill. Brett and Teresa Hobbs are teaching their two daughters, ages 7 and 11, about the gift of a perfect afternoon breeze.

“For our family, it’s given us more time to talk,” says Teresa Hobbs, a kindergarten teacher.

In a cozy subdivision called Winterberry, Meg and Dan Tully have been trying to come up with ways to balance working at home with schoolwork and the need to keep their three active boys busy. With the school running club shut down, they’ve been taking turns leading the boys on their usual mile run.

Dan Tully, a telecommunications engineering manager, still dresses in business attire for video conferences while working at home. During occasional breaks, he kicks a soccer ball around the yard with his kids. On one recent day off, he and his wife took the boys to a nearly empty Twin Hickory Park and taught them the finer points of spiking and serving a volleyball.

A quarter-mile away, Jamie and Joe Burton and their three children are eating dinner together every night, once a rarity with their busy schedules. Their daughters, 12 and 9, are competitive gymnasts who used to practice five nights a week, while their son had weekly baseball games and practices.

Jamie Burton, a registered nurse, still must go to work. But because the kids are home from school and their extracurricular activities have all been canceled, the family’s lighter schedules have opened up new opportunities for doing things together.

“My oldest daughter said, ‘Mom, I know this is scary and a lot of things are going on in the world. But the one positive I see immediately is that we’re able to spend more family time together,’” Burton says.

Burton’s neighbor Stephanie Owens, a pharmacist, has also continued her usual work schedule. But the kids being home from school has created extra pockets of time. Last week, she, her brother, mother and her three sons — 12, 8 and 3 — all planted a small garden in a corner of their backyard.

“It’s nice to be able to have more time with them,” Owens says. “Usually, it’s get up in the morning, get ready to go to school, do homework at night and go to bed.”

This is, it seems, a case of circumstances helping to double down on a trend that already exists. Liana Sayer, director of the Time Use Laboratory at the University of Maryland, says research shows that parents have been spending more leisure time with their children since the 1970s. She expects that trend to only accelerate as the coronavirus continues to disrupt daily life.

“We have a new set of constraints now — one that is forcing people to spend time together, not keeping them apart in the way that work schedules and school schedule and activities’ schedules did,” Sayer says.

All of this togetherness and free time has been a silver lining in the coronavirus outbreak for many middle-class and affluent families. But it’s hardly universal. Jessica Calarco, a sociology professor at Indiana University, says the crisis hasn’t provided the same opportunities for many working-class families, hourly workers and single parents. They’re wondering how they are going to pay for child care and worrying about losing their jobs as more and more businesses close.

“They don’t have the flexibility to work at home or take an hour out of the middle of the day to take a walk with their kids because of the other types of pressure they may be facing,” Calarco says. “I worry about the inequalities that are resulting from this.”

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Follow Denise Lavoie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/deniselavoie_ap

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Check out AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

Virus coordinator Birx is Trump’s data-whisperer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For many in the public health and political worlds, Dr. Deborah Birx is the sober scientist advising an unpredictable president. She’s the data whisperer who will help steer President Donald Trump as he ponders how quickly to restart an economy that’s ground to a halt in the coronavirus pandemic.

Others worry that Birx, who stepped away from her job as the U.S. global AIDS coordinator to help lead the White House coronavirus response, may be offering Trump cover to follow some of his worst instincts as he considers whether to have people packing the pews by Easter Sunday.

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In coming days, immunologist Birx will be front and center in that debate along with the U.S. government’s foremost infection disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as Vice President Mike Pence. Birx will bring to the discussion what she fondly refers to as her sheet music — data on testing, mortality, demographics and much more.

“What the president has asked us to do is to assemble all the data and give him our best medical recommendation based on all the data,” Birx told reporters. “This is consistent with our mandate to really use every piece of information that we can in order to give the president our opinion that’s backed up by data.”

But will Trump listen?

The president has sent mixed messages on that. He plans to meet with the two doctors and Pence on Monday to review the latest data on the spread of the disease. His administration’s original 15-day guidelines promoting social distancing expire Tuesday.

Over a matter of weeks, Trump has veered from playing down the virus threat to warning Americans it could be summer before the pandemic is under control. And in more recent days, he’s talked eagerly about having parts of the country raring back by Easter in two weeks.

As the president’s message has vacillated, Birx has emerged as one of the most important voices laying out the administration’s pandemic response. She has a way of spelling out the implications of the virus to Americans in personal terms while offering reassurances that the administration is approaching the pandemic with a data-driven mindset.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who helped shepherd Birx’s ambassadorial nomination through the Senate in the Obama administration, said it’s like Birx and Fauci have become a tag team for science in the midst of calamity.

“I can’t imagine how complicated it is to have a boss –- if you will — who insists on saying things on a regular basis that are just not true and aren’t based on any science,” Sebelius said.

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In her public comments, Birx has taken pains to avoid publicly contradicting Trump when he’s offered some decidedly unscientific riffs, unlike Fauci, a professional mentor, who has been known to push back pointedly.

Instead, her messaging has toggled between providing digestible interpretations of what the data is saying about the spread of the virus and offering relatable pleas to the American public to practice social distancing to help stem the disease.

In recent days, Birx has received praise from Trump backers and pushback from some fellow scientists after she minimized what she called “very scary” statistical modeling by some infectious disease experts.

One study, published this month by Harvard University epidemiologists, found that the need to maintain social distancing remains crucial in the weeks ahead to prevent the American healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed by new cases.

“The scenario Dr. Birx is ‘assuring’ us about is one in which we somehow escape Italy’s problem of overloaded healthcare system despite the fact that social distancing is not really happening in large parts of the US,” Marc Lipsitch, a co-author of the study, wrote on Twitter.

Birx also has drawn criticism for asserting that there are still beds in intensive care units and a “significant” number of ventilators available in hospitals around New York City -- the area hardest hit by virus. That message doesn’t jibe with the dire warnings of city hospital workers, who in recent days have said they’re ill-equipped and in danger of being overwhelmed by patients stricken with the virus.

Birx’s friends and colleagues say she is one of the adults in the room who is providing the president with clear-headed advice and giving Americans the information they need to stay safe.

“She’s a tough cookie,” said Michael Weinstein, who heads the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and got to know Birx professionally after she was named the global AIDS coordinator in 2014. “She’s 100% about the data.”

In the sea of men in dark suits who have been appearing with Trump for daily briefings, the 63-year-old mother of two with a fondness for colorful scarves stands out. Her seemingly endless scarf collection was even fodder for comedian Paula Poundstone recently on the NPR quiz show “Wait Wait...Don’t tell me!”

Birx’s resume is impressive: She is a U.S. Army physician and recognized AIDS researcher who rose to the rank of colonel, head of the global AIDS program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a rare Obama administration holdover as the State Department’s ambassador-at-large leading a U.S. taxpayer-funded worldwide campaign to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Birx has also developed a reputation as a tough boss. Some who fall under her watch at the global effort known as PEPFAR have complained that the leadership of her office has been“dictatorial” and “autocratic,” according to a State Department Office of Inspector General audit released earlier this year.

“She has somewhat of a reputation of being a hard task-master,” said John Auerbach, head of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health.. “She is incredibly hard-working, someone who was driven and would drive other people to work really hard and to do their best work.”

Birx has also been perhaps the most outspoken in calling for Americans to be mindful in how they are interacting with others. And she’s made the case in personal terms.

The doctor says she’s avoided visiting with her young grandchildren as she practices social distancing, and she’s spoken in admiring tones of her two millennial daughters when making the case that younger Americans’ actions will play a key role in determining how quickly the country can contain the virus.

She also has spoken of her grandmother living with a lifetime of guilt, because she caught the flu at school as a girl and, in turn, infected her mother — one of an estimated 50 million people worldwide who died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.

“She never forgot that she was the child that was in school that innocently bought that flu home,” Birx said of her grandmother.

Birx, who declined to be interviewed for this article, told a Christian TV network popular with Trump’s evangelical base that she’s confident that the president is, like her, a student of data.

“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data,” Birx told CBN. “I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues because in the end, data is data.”

Virus infections top 600,000 worldwide, long fight ahead

BERLIN (AP) — The number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide topped 600,000 on Saturday as new cases stacked up quickly in Europe and the United States and officials dug in for a long fight against the pandemic.

The latest landmark came only two days after the world passed half a million infections, according to a tally by John Hopkins University, showing that much work remains to be done to slow the spread of the virus. It showed more than 607,000 cases and a total of over 28,000 deaths.

While the U.S. now leads the world in reported infections — with more than 104,000 cases — five countries exceed its roughly 1,700 deaths: Italy, Spain, China, Iran and France.

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“We cannot completely prevent infections at this stage, but we can and must in the immediate future achieve fewer new infections per day, a slower spread,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in quarantine at home after her doctor tested positive for the virus, told her compatriots in an audio message. “That will decide whether our health system can stand up to the virus.”

The virus already has put health systems in Italy, Spain and France under extreme strain. Lockdowns of varying severity have been introduced across Europe, nearly emptying streets in normally bustling cities, including Paris where drone photos showed the city’s landmarks eerily deserted.

Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, said that Germany — where authorities closed nonessential shops and banned gatherings of more than two in public — won’t relax its restrictions before April 20.

Spain, where stay-at-home restrictions have been in place for nearly two weeks, reported 832 more deaths on Saturday, its highest daily total yet, bringing its total to 5,690. Another 8,000 confirmed infections pushed that count above 72,000.

Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers in its worst-hit regions are falling ill at an alarming rate and working nonstop. More than 9,000 health workers in the country have been infected.

“We are completely overwhelmed,” said ambulance medic Pablo Rojo at Barcelona’s Dos de Maig hospital. “Seven or eight (patients transported today) and all with COVID-19. ... And the average age is decreasing. They’re not 80 years old anymore, they are now 30 and 40 years old.”

“Sometimes you become a bit paranoid, you don’t know any more when you pick up the phone if you have cleaned your hands, if you’ve sanitized them or not. You touch your face with your hands,” Rojo said.

Spain has struggled to get coronavirus tests and protective gear for health workers. The government has started flights to transport the supplies directly from China to reduce waiting times.

As the epicenter has shifted westward, the situation has calmed in China, where some restrictions on people’s lives have now been lifted. Six subway lines restored limited service in Wuhan, where the virus first emerged in December, after the city had its official coronavirus risk evaluation downgraded from high to medium on Friday. Five districts of the city of 11 million people had other restrictions on travel loosened after their risk factor was downgraded to low.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and lead to death.

More than 130,000 people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins’ tally.

In one way or another, the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak have been felt by the powerful and the poor alike.

On Friday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the first leader of a major country to test positive for the virus. He said he would continue to work from self-quarantine.

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Countries are still scrambling bring home some citizens stranded abroad by border closures and a near-shutdown of flights. On Saturday, 174 foreign tourists and four Nepali nationals on the foothills of Mount Everest were flown out days after being stranded on the only airstrip serving the world’s highest mountain.

In neighboring India, authorities sent a fleet of buses to the outskirts of the capital to meet an exodus of migrant workers desperately trying to reach their home villages during the world’s largest lockdown.

Thousands of people had fled their New Delhi homes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown that began on Wednesday and effectively put millions of Indians who live off daily earnings out of work.

In parts of Africa, virus prevention measures have taken a violent turn as countries impose lockdowns and curfews or seal off major cities, with police in Kenya firing tear gas and officers elsewhere captured in mobile phone footage whacking people with batons.

In the United States, New York remained the worst-hit city, but Americans braced for worsening conditions elsewhere, with worrisome infection numbers being reported in New Orleans, Chicago and Detroit.

New Orleans’ sprawling Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, along the Mississippi River, was being converted into a massive hospital as officials prepared for thousands more patients than they could accommodate.

In New York, where there are more than 44,000 cases statewide, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 passed 6,000 on Friday, double what it had been three days earlier.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for 4,000 more temporary beds across New York City, where the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center has already been converted into a hospital.

The struggle to defeat the virus will take “weeks and weeks and weeks,” Cuomo told members of the National Guard working at the Javits Center.

President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on Friday, ordering General Motors to begin manufacturing ventilators.

Trump signed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, after the House approved the sweeping measure by voice vote. Lawmakers in both parties lined up behind the law to send checks to millions of Americans, boost unemployment benefits, help businesses and toss a life preserver to an overwhelmed health care system.

Dr. John Brooks of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans remained “in the acceleration phase” of the pandemic and that all corners of the country were at risk.

“There is no geographic part of the United States that is spared from this,” he said.

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Sedensky reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Trump fires back at Michigan’s Whitmer, claims Dem governor ‘doesn’t have a clue’

President Trump took aim at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday night, claiming in a Twitter message that the Democrat was “way in over her head” amid the coronavirus outbreak and “doesn’t have a clue.”
As of late Friday, Michigan had more than 2,200 confirmed cases of the virus, ranking fifth in the nation, and had seen at least 43 deaths.
“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” the president wrote. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA”
TRUMP SAYS GOVERNORS HAVE TO GET KEY MEDICAL GEAR THEMSELVES, BUT 'WE'RE HERE TO HELP THEM'
The Twitter message followed Whitmer’s accusations Friday that medical-supply vendors were being told “not to send stuff here to Michigan” – and her insinuation that the alleged orders were coming from the Trump administration.
It also followed the 48-year-old first-term governor's previous complaint that Michigan wasn’t receiving “clear directives and guidance” from Washington for handling the outbreak.
Earlier Friday, Trump told reporters during a White House news briefing that he advised Vice President Mike Pence – leader of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force – against communicating with Whitmer, claiming she was among a small group of governors who weren’t being “appreciative” of the Trump administration’s virus response efforts.
“I say, Mike … don’t call the woman in Michigan. I say, if they don’t treat you right, don’t call,” Trump told reporters.
The remark followed previous comments the president made Thursday during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“We've had a big problem with the young, a woman governor,” Trump said. “You know who I'm talking about, from Michigan. We don't like to see the complaints.”
That Thursday remark from Trump drew a Twitter response from Whitmer.
"Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me," Whitmer wrote.
"I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan -- prove it."
Whitmer aired more concerns Friday during an interview with Detroit radio station WWJ-AM, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.
"When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on," Whitmer told WWJ. "What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It's really concerning.”
Whitmer then doubled down on her claim during an appearance on CNN, Crain’s reported.
"We've entered into a number of contracts and as we are getting closer to the date when shipments are supposed to come in, they're getting canceled or they're getting delayed," Whitmer said. "We've been told they're going first to the federal government.”
Earlier in the week, Whitmer complained that Michigan wasn’t receiving “clear directives and guidance from the federal government” on how to handle the crisis.

The coronavirus outbreak has sparked tension between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Trump.

“Frankly, a patchwork strategy of each state doing what they can, we’re going to do it if we need to, but it would be nice to have a national strategy," she said, according to MLive.
Whitmer claimed that if the Trump administration had focused on the pandemic sooner, Michigan and the U.S. would "be in a stronger position right now."
"Lives will be lost because we weren't prepared," she said.
Also on Friday, President Trump signed a more than $2 trillion legislative package intended to provide extensive relief to workers and businesses as they deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
In addition, the president named his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, to direct implementation of the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the authority to direct manufacturers to produce medical supplies such as ventilators.

Townhall Cartoons

US cases now most in world, US capital sees more infections

A police officer chases a man who violated the lockdown downtown Johannesburg, South Africa

TORONTO (AP) — The United States’ caseload of coronavirus infections surged to the most in the world and its capital reported more infections, as Italy shut most of its industry and masses of Indian day laborers received food rations after a lockdown put them out of work.

Increases in the number of cases have been expected as testing becomes more available. The U.S. passed China with more than 85,000 cases, and Italy also exceeded 80,000, the three countries together accounting for almost half of the world’s infections from the new virus.

Most of China’s patients have recovered, while places where the virus arrived later are now dealing with overwhelmed hospitals and supply shortages and are rushing to convert public spaces for treating the sick.

Washington, D.C., confirmed 36 new cases Thursday, raising its total to 267. The district is under a state of emergency, its major attractions like the Smithsonian museums and National Zoo closed and White House and Capitol tours cancelled. Police have blocked off streets, bridges and traffic circles to prevent crowds coming to see Washington’s blooming cherry blossom trees.

The stay-home order for India’s 1.3 billion people threw out of work the backbone of the nation’s economy — rickshaw drivers, fruit peddlers, cleaners and others who buy food from whatever they can earn in a day. The government announced a $22 billion stimulus to deliver monthly rations to 800 million people.

In some parts of India, people got rice rations or bank deposits from local authorities, and aid groups were working to expand their reach. The nation’s vital and massive train system was also halted, and jobless workers are now attempting to walk hundreds of miles to their home villages from India’s major cities.

Deaths from COVID-19 have surpassed 24,000, more than a third of them in Italy, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. The U.S. had about 1,300 deaths, almost a quarter of them in New York City, where hospitals are overwhelmed.

In China, where the virus was first believed to have jumped from wild animals to humans, the National Health Commission on Friday reported 55 new cases, including 54 it said were imported infections in recent arrivals from overseas. Once again, there were no new cases reported in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the coronavirus emerged in December. China is barring most foreigners from entering as it tries to curb imported cases.

The economic damage of the pandemic was growing. Italy shut down most of its industry, and a record-shattering 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in a single week.

Companies in Europe are laying off workers at the fastest pace since 2009, according to surveys of business managers. And the U.S. is bleeding jobs as well: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was nearly five times the old record, set in 1982.

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Dann Dykas, 37, of Portland, Oregon, was laid off from his job helping design and set up displays for trade shows.

“Everything is so surreal,” he said. “I can’t even get an interview for another job, and we now have to worry more about being careful and taking care of ourselves.”

Wall Street rallied for the third straight day after an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package to help businesses, hospitals and ordinary Americans pull through the crisis won passage in the Senate. The rescue plan, which is expected to be voted on in the House on Friday, would dispense checks of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child.

Elsewhere around the world, South Africa, with the most industrialized economy in Africa, began a three-week lockdown Friday. The country is already in recession, with an unemployment rate of 29%.

And Britain unveiled another relief effort, this time aimed at the gig economy, many of whose workers are facing financial ruin. The government will give the self-employed grants equal to 80% of their average profits, up to 2,500 pounds ($2,975) per month.

The outbreak has put huge pressure on foreign students, especially those at universities in North America and Europe.

Zoey Wang recently returned home to the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu after her in-person classes and exams at the University of Toronto in Canada were cancelled. Her parents’ desire to have her home and the possibility of high medical costs if she became sick persuaded her to make the arduous return trip, she said.

Some on Chinese social media have attacked returning students for bringing “poison” into the country after its months-long fight to contain the virus, but Wang said that was unfair.

“It’s not like everyone is deliberately returning because they were infected,” Wang said. “People should remember that when the outbreak happened in China, international students were sending masks and other items.”

Wang flew from Toronto to Taipei, Taiwan, then from Taipei to Chengdu. The Chengdu leg was packed; everyone wore masks, most people donned goggles and gloves, and a few were garbed in full-body protective suits.

When she arrived in Chengdu, she was required to take a COVID-19 test and stay in a hotel for two nights until her results came back negative. Only then was she allowed to return to her own home for quarantine. Every day, a government neighborhood committee worker comes to take her temperature.

In other developments:

— New York state’s death toll jumped by 100 in one day, pushing the number to 385. Gov. Andrew Cuomo added that the number will increase as critically ill patients who have been on ventilators for several days succumb. “That is a situation where people just deteriorate over time,” Cuomo said.

— Saudi Arabia is locking down the capital, Riyadh, and Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, in addition to a nationwide curfew. In the United Arab Emirates, authorities announced an overnight weekend lockdown and used drones to tell people to stay home.

— The leaders of the Group of 20 major industrialized nations met in a video summit and vowed to work together to confront the crisis but made no specific commitments.

— In Brazil, the country’s governors are defying President Jair Bolsonaro over his call to reopen schools and businesses, dismissing his argument that the “cure” of widespread shutdowns is worse than the disease. As of Thursday, the country had more than 2,500 cases and 59 deaths.

— A U.S. soldier stationed at a camp near Seoul is the second case among U.S. service members in South Korea.

— Singapore has begun penalizing people who refuse to adhere to social distancing in the latest bid to curb the virus. Anyone not maintaining a distance of 1 meter (3.3 feet) from another person in a public place such as a shopping center or shopping mall can be jailed up to six months or fined up to Singapore dollars 10,000 ($7,000) or both.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Of the world’s 532,000 confirmed cases, more than 122,000 people have recovered, according to the Johns Hopkins tally.

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Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Pelosi 'jiu-jitsu' claim on coronavirus relief all wrong, McCarthy says: 'She held the bill up'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being disingenuous about her role in crafting the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Thursday night.
"I know it is her birthday, but it does not give her the right to lie," McCarthy, a California Republican, said on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" on the day that Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, turned 80 years old.
"Ninety-nine percent of this bill was already decided on Sunday -- she held the bill up," McCarthy added.
MCCONNELL ADMONISHES PELOSI OVER CORONAVIRUS AID BILL: 'I WISH SHE'D TURN OFF THOSE POLITICAL TALKING POINTS'
Pelosi claimed in earlier remarks that she and other House Democrats had "performed jiu-jitsu on" the bill, preventing Republicans from making it a piece of "corporate first" legislation.
She claimed Democrats succeeded in shifting the bill's direction toward a "democratic, workers-first legislation."
McCarthy added that nearly 3.3 million Americans filed jobless claims this week, while Democrats "held up" the bill, which was being crafted to provide relief.
He also slammed Pelosi for trying to insert provisions enacting parts of the Green New Deal, giving millions to Planned Parenthood, transforming election law, granting money to sanctuary cities, and giving a handout to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.
"That is what she was requesting -- that is what we kept out," he said, adding that during bipartisan negotiations, the provision giving $24 million to the Kennedy Center remained in the bill.
"[The Kennedy Center funding] is her 'jiu-jitsu'," he said.