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WE WANT TRUDEAU! WE WANT TRUDEAU! WE WANT TRUDEAU
“WE WANT TRUDEAU! WE WANT TRUDEAU! WE WANT TRUDEAU” Alex Wong / Getty News

• As we await the expected surge of people who need to be hospitalized due to the coronavirus (which could come as soon as this Friday according to some sources), Gov. Kate Brown announced today that the state is setting up a 250-bed hospital on the Salem State Fairgrounds to treat patients.

• Gov. Brown also announced today that Oregon will soon be adding up to 20,000 new coronavirus tests for citizens through private laboratory Quest Diagnostics.

• Two more coronavirus deaths have been reported in Oregon, bringing the total to three. Our Blair Stenvick has more details.

• Congress is still working on a $1.3 trillion relief proposal today (no thanks to Rand Paul, who is trash.) The direct payments to American families would start in April, and would be “tiered based on income level and family size.”

• Too late to move to Canada, I guess.

• The Defense Production Act has been invoked, which allows the President to tell private companies to make things for the good of the country. Things like masks, gloves, respirators, beds, etc. Learn more about the Defense Production Act here.

• While we’re all looking at April/May dates as a possible start to figuring out what “Normal” might look like, the White House reminds people Coronavirus disruptions could last “Well into July.”

• US Surgeon General Jerome Adams also wanted to kibosh the notion that people will be encouraged to leave their homes in as little as two weeks: “Fifteen days is likely not going to be enough to get us through.”

• Speaking of extending the effect of social distancing for safety’s sake: In a press release sent yesterday afternoon, Gov. Kate Brown announced she is extending public school closures statewide for an additional four weeks to slow the spread of coronavirus. School is expected to start back—at this point—on April 28.

• If that sounds like officials are expecting the virus to be more persistent than first thought, you’re right. That’s exactly what it sounds like, because new studies have highlighted just how persistent COVID-19 is, hanging around in the air for hours and on surfaces for days.

• Do you want to read the epidemic modeling report that finally jarred federal and state governments into taking action to prevent COVID-19’s spread? It’s pretty scary stuff:

• Meanwhile Multnomah County has put a moratorium on residential evictions as long as the state of emergency lasts—though renters are expected to pay back the unpaid rent within six months. Our Alex Zielinski has the details.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development is suspending foreclosures for mortgages insured by the FHA (Federal Housing Administration), as well as ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosures and evictions for at least 60 days on single-family mortgages.

• The coronavirus can now be found in every state in America (looks like the last state to catch a case was West Virginia), and nationally, over 100 people have died. Globally, confirmed COVID-19 cases have topped 200,000.

• Word had begun to spread that ibuprofen was not a good idea during this crisis, and people were thinking they might need to avoid taking it. This is not true, and they don’t need to avoid it. (Phew!)

• And just in case you were maybe starting to possibly think you could go a little easier on our demented slumlord idiot president, because a proper response to this crisis is finally rolling out (way, way too late)—well, don’t. Do not do that.

• The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are still scheduled to occur in July, despite no real evidence gatherings of that size will be safe by then, and against the wishes of many of the athletes. Not mentioned in the talks between officials and athletes: The fact the Olympics haven’t really been interesting or worth watching for about 40 years now.

One reply on “Coronavirus News Updates: 20,000 Tests for Oregon, Trudeau is the President We Need, and Will “Sheltered” Be the New Normal?”

  1. The failures of the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis can be traced directly to some of the toxic fantasies now dear to the Republican Party. Here are a few: Government is bad. Establishment experts are overrated or just plain wrong. Science is suspect. And we can go it alone, the world be damned.

    Required watch: Trump gaslighting the country:

    https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/03/18/don-lemon-president-trump-politicizing-coronavirus-ctn-vpx.cnn

    The truth people in this country do not want to hear. This is going to be nearly 2 years long. So you need to wrap your mind around that.

    The two reports, one from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the other from Imperial College London, were generated separately, but both of them reach similar conclusions: We’ve already waited too long to “flatten the curve” with the kind of actions that have been taken to date. Instead, this is going to be a long, hard fight, requiring some genuinely dire steps. And there may be no end to the threat until a vaccine is widely available—more than a year from now.

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/18/1928623/-Reports-reveal-what-officials-are-being-told-about-COVID-19-and-it-s-not-what-they-are-telling-us?utm_campaign=trending

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