Coronavirus pandemic in the US

An estimated 4.1% of Los Angeles County residents have been infected with novel coronavirus — dozens of times higher than officially confirmed cases, according to early results announced Monday by county health officials

The study, which is ongoing and has not been peer-reviewed, used an antibody blood test to estimate how many people had been infected with Covid-19 in the past. Other tests, like those performed with nasal swabs or saliva, test for the virus' genetic material, which does not persist long after recovery, as antibodies do.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Southern California, estimated that 221,000 to 442,000 adults in L.A. county had been infected based on drive-through tests conducted on April 10 and 11. Given the study’s margin of error, this represents between 2.8 and 5.6% of the population — which is also 28 to 55 times what county officials recorded around that time: about 8,000 confirmed cases.

"These results indicate that many persons may have been unknowingly infected and at risk of transmitting the virus to others," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said in a statement Monday.

According to the announcement, new rounds of testing will be conducted "every few weeks” to follow the course of the outbreak at the local level over the coming months.

On Friday, a similar study in Santa Clara County, California, estimated between 2.49% and 4.16% of residents had developed antibodies as of April 1. These numbers — representing between 48,000 and 81,000 people — were 50 to 85 times higher than the 956 confirmed cases at the time.

Similar efforts to estimate local antibody prevalence have launched in places like Miami-Dade County, Florida; San Miguel County, Colorado; and New York, New York. Experts say these studies could help improve projections and disease modeling, at the same time giving a more realistic sense of how deadly the virus really is.

Doctors suspect, though, and are still trying to prove beyond a doubt, that antibodies to Covid-19 mean one is immune down the line.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has admitted publicly, several times, that the unemployment system in his state has been “overwhelmed” by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Today, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) published a report showing only 6.2% of the more than 649,000 people who have submitted unemployment claims have been paid. 

According to the Florida DEO, the 6.2% equates to 40,193 people, who have been paid nearly $60 million dollars in claims.

Here are the numbers:

One thing to note: Unique claims mean the claim has only been submitted once. Some individuals submitted an application through multiple methods and the total claims, more than 1.5 million, could include double or triple submissions.

A big disagreement still remains in negotiations over the small business package: whether to include provisions for a national testing strategy, as Democrats have been demanding, according to three sources familiar with the talks.

Overall, the $25 billion in funding to bolster Covid-19 testing will generally be broken down to three different areas: money the Health and Human Services Department will distribute to labs and other entities, another pot of money to the National Institutes of Health and then another pot of money for states.

But Democrats are still trying to push for a more robust role for the federal government, something that Republicans and the White House are still rejecting as President Trump has called on states to take the lead role.

What Democrats are proposing is something modeled after a plan offered by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray last week. That plan, in part, calls for a "detailed" strategic plan led by the federal government.

Due to shelter-in-place orders, the Internal Revenue Service has shut down all of its processing centers and has stopped processing paper returns.

This means that many unopened business tax refund requests have been moved into trailers.

“There is so much mail that the Post Office can’t hold it,” said Sunita Lough, deputy commissioner for Services and Enforcement at the IRS during a panel webcast by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center last week. 

This won’t hold up most individual tax filers, 90% of whom file their taxes electronically. But a lot of business tax returns and individuals’ amended tax returns are filed on paper.

“Filing season is going great,” Lough said.

To help alleviate the delay, the IRS is allowing people to send documents that they usually send in the mail via fax and email as long as certain requirements are met. The agency has also extended various tax filing and payment deadlines. 

Individuals have until July 15 to file their 2019 tax returns.

As of April 10, the IRS had received about 13% fewer individual tax returns this year compared to 2019 and processed 15.5% less.

In addition, the IRS has been tasked with sending out stimulus payments to 90% of Americans, as outlined in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed into law last month.

Last week, it sent out the first round of stimulus payments, directly depositing money to roughly 80 million people’s bank accounts.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced today two new coronavirus outbreaks in the state.

Reynolds said the state is now aware of an outbreak of Covid-19 at Bishop Drum Retirement Center, a long-term care facility in Polk County, and at Iowa Premium National Beef, a beef processing facility in Tama County.

Iowa Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter said that the state health department was "working closely with officials" from two meat packing facilities to control outbreaks

Iowa has struggled with outbreaks at meat processing facilities. 

In addition to today's new outbreak at Iowa Premium National Beef, the Tyson plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, has been shut down and two employees who worked at there died due to Covid-19, the company said. 

Reynolds announced last week that 2,700 tests were being sent to the Tyson plant in Waterloo, Iowa. The governor has drawn criticism from local officials for not ordering the closing of the Tyson plant in Waterloo.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced today the incremental reopening of certain business this week.

Here are some businesses that can reopen as early as Friday:

Theaters and restaurants can open on April 27. Bars, night clubs and music venues will remain closed for now. 

No local ordinance can restrict the openings, which will be implemented statewide. All businesses that reopen must follow social distancing guidelines and screen employees for illness, the governor said.

South Carolina Gov. McMaster said he wants to “slingshot back around the competition” to get back to business so he's allowing some stores to reopen today.

Retail, department and sporting goods stores, as well as flea markets, will be allowed to open at 5 p.m. today at 20% capacity, or five people per 1,000 square feet.

Speaking at a news conference, he said he’d like to “stomp on the gas” and accelerate as fast and as safely as they can. McMaster announced a group called “Accelerate SC” with 29 participants across various industries.

Beaches will be reopened beginning at noon Tuesday.

There have been at least 776,513 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 41,313 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

As states begin to include “probable deaths” in their counts, so will JHU. In the upcoming days, these changes may show as surges of deaths in the United States. 

On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 17,046 new cases and 636 reported deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.  

llinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state is beginning to ramp up testing in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Staff in facilities with known Covid-19 cases will be given pre-shift wellness checks, including taking temperatures. Testing will be ramped up as well. 

The state is also working to test all residents and staff at facilities without known Covid-19 outbreaks.

“This testing at non-Covid facilities will allow us to identify early the presence of COVID-19 in a facility and isolate those cases before widespread transmission,” the governor said.