House passes $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill as deaths in U.S. pass 86,000

For decades, the United States has worked with the World Health Organization and others to quash polio, beating back to near extinction a merciless disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children each year.

That progress is in danger as the pandemic forces health-care providers to suspend door-to-door vaccination campaigns that have slashed the number of infections.

New cases have emerged in Niger and Chad, and fears have mounted about a resurgence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although the number of new polio infections has been small — 155 confirmed cases since January — even blips are worrisome, public health experts say, because small increases can trigger explosive outbreaks, especially in poor countries without the resources to combat the virus alone.

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Lori Cooper got to thinking last week about late autumn in Canada, where it’s cold, and in other parts of the world, where it’s not. So the 61-year-old resident of Pickering, near Toronto, booked a Holland America Line cruise to the Caribbean in November.

“I was looking for some warmth,” said Cooper, who tries to cruise a couple of times a year. She also recently booked a transatlantic sailing for April 2021, with stops including the Azores, Ireland and Brussels — with the full understanding that there’s no guarantee when ships will start sailing again, and what the experience will be like.

“Hopefully, we’ll be cruising again,” she said.

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DINUBA, Calif. — The gravesite still has no marker. No grass has grown over the dry ground here, in a flat cemetery surrounded by some of the richest citrus groves in the country, where Hortensia Sosa and her husband, Luis, are buried together.

The grave is too new for that. Just dug. Just filled.

Dying last month of the novel coronavirus, Hortensia’s body was kept for 10 days in quarantine. At first, the family was not allowed to leave their cars during her burial, finally receiving permission to do so but only if they stood well away from the tiny patch of ground where Hortensia’s coffin was lowered slowly on top of Luis’s casket. Hortensia Sosa is among the 1,058 residents of skilled nursing facilities who have died in California as a result of the coronavirus, a quickly escalating toll that accounts for about 40 percent of the state’s overall deaths from the infection.

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When Lagos went into lockdown last month, banks in Nigeria’s bustling financial hub shut their doors. But many agents who offer financial services informally, crucial commerce for the city’s impoverished communities, continued to work using mobile payment apps on their phones, helping customers transfer money and pay bills.

“We’re a country where people live day-to-day and barely have savings,” said Tayo Oviosu, CEO of Paga, a Nigerian mobile money company.

In the United States and elsewhere, mobile money services like Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPall, along with its subsidiary Venmo, are rising in popularity by offering mobile wallets that allow users to send money digitally. A similar model has taken off in developing countries, particularly in Africa, targeting those with no or limited access to the banking and financial system. Experts and members of the industry say the pandemic is likely to escalate that trend.

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NFL teams were told in a memo from the league Friday that they can begin reopening their facilities next week.

The memo from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that teams can reopen their facilities beginning Tuesday if they are permitted to do so under state and local guidelines and are in compliance with the health and safety protocols previously outlined by the league. Coaches and most players are not permitted to be in the facilities during this initial phase of reopening.

“This first phase of reopening is an important step in demonstrating our ability to operate [safely] and effectively, even in the current environment,” Goodell wrote in the memo. “After we implement this first phase, and as more states and localities enact policies that allow more club facilities to reopen, I expect that additional staff, likely including coaching staff, will be allowed to return to club facilities in a relatively short time.”

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As Virginia loosens shutdown measures, positive coronavirus tests continue to pop up inside two prominent poultry plants in Accomack County.

On Friday, the Eastern Shore Health Department reported that approximately 18 percent of workers at the Perdue and Tyson poultry plants had tested positive for the virus. In mass testing conducted last week, 3,100 people at the two plants were examined.

The health department reported that not all of the people who tested positive reside in Virginia, and as of Friday, only 85 of the 510 confirmed cases have been added to the total case count for Accomack and Northampton counties, the department said in a statement.

In April, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offered assistance to the plants during the outbreak and workers joined labor rights activists and others in a car rally outside the Perdue facility, protesting alleged deficiencies in personal protective equipment for staff.

Around the time of the rally, the plants made up more than 50 percent of the positive coronavirus cases on the Eastern Shore.

As of midnight Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) relaxed certain restrictions for nonessential businesses. However, he approved requests from Accomack County and the City of Richmond to postpone “Phase 1” reopenings until May 29. More populous regions like the Northern Virginia cities surrounding Washington also remained under stay-at-home orders.

House Democrats on Friday passed a $3 trillion tax cut and spending bill aimed at addressing the devastating economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak by directing huge sums of money into all corners of the economy.

But the White House and Senate Republicans have decried the measure’s design and said they will cast it aside, leaving uncertain what steps policymakers might take as the economy continues to face severe strains.

The sweeping legislation, dubbed the “Heroes Act, passed 208-199. Fourteen Democrats defected and opposed the bill, reflecting concerns voiced both by moderates and liberals in the House Democratic caucus about the bill’s content and the leadership-driven process that brought it to the floor. The bill won support from just one Republican: Rep. Pete King of New York.

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The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily halted election officials from allowing voters to cast absentee ballots while citing fears of the coronavirus, blocking a state appeal court’s ruling and backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a filing Wednesday, Paxton argued that officials in five counties overstepped their authority by recommending that voters who are concerned about contracting the coronavirus at polling locations use the state’s “disability” excuse to obtain an absentee ballot.

“Each misapplication of Texas election law damages the integrity of our elections and increases the risk of voter fraud,” Paxton said in a written statement. “It is unfortunate that certain county election officials have refused to perform their duties and have instead unlawfully gone beyond the Legislature’s determination of who is eligible to vote by mail.”

A legal battle is brewing over how Texans will vote during the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats have sued in state and federal court to loosen restrictions on absentee voting for upcoming elections, and they won a favorable ruling last month from a state district judge. Paxton has appealed the decision.

Chad Dunn, general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party, earlier accused Paxton of trying to “upset the election process” after thousands of Texans have already requested mail-in ballots.

“Apparently, none of the counties agree with Ken Paxton’s view that everybody under age 65 has to vote in person during a pandemic and the court shouldn’t either. The Legislature provided for vote-by-mail in these pandemic circumstances,” Dunn said in a written statement.

The state Supreme Court has yet to examine the merits of the case, the Texas Tribune reported.