Doctors and nurses protesting the lack of proper protective gear in Oakland, CA.
Doctors and nurses protesting the lack of proper protective gear in Oakland, CA. Justin Sullivan / Getty News

Here's your daily roundup of all the local and national news about COVID-19. (Like our coverage? Please consider donating to the Mercury to keep it comin'!)

• The number of positive coronavirus cases in Oregon (that we know of) has jumped again from 316 yesterday to 414 today—nearly 100 more. The current number of known deaths moved up one to 12.

• Metro, the regional government entity representing Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties, announced they are laying off 40 percent of their workers (which includes employees at the Oregon Zoo, Portland 5 Centers for the Performing Arts, the Oregon Convention Center, and more).

• If you're interested in tracking the spread of COVID-19 in the Northwest, there's a detail-filled, frequently updating interactive map for that, courtesy of the Spokane Fire Department.

• Portland's Jupiter Hotel is doing a righteous thing: making their hotel available for homeless locals who have COVID-19 symptoms. Our Alex Zielinski has more.

• More good news: Oregon's vote-by-mail system could become the way the entire country does it—if the money just allocated by Congress holds out. Our Blair Stenvick has the details.

• Hey non-essential business owners who are forcing your employees to work where they can't keep appropriate social distancing, and violating Gov. Brown's executive order! THE STATE IS COMING AFTER YOU. (And then every media source will make it our personal job to humiliate and ruin you. So maybe take that under consideration, as well?)

• The Multnomah County Library's locations are still indefinitely closed, and they have extended the cancellation of their programs, classes, and events through to April 30th.

• Ashland took a big hit today as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced their 2020 season is postponed until September, and they've laid off 400 employees, or about 80 percent of their staff.

• Oregonians enrolled in SNAP have been given the go-ahead by OHS to purchase groceries online from Walmart and Amazon in order to observe safe social distancing guidelines. However, delivery and pickup fees aren't covered by those SNAP benefits.

• A new forecast from health officials at the Institute for Disease Modeling shows that Oregon can avoid a worst-case scenario and prevent health-care overburdening so long as people... wait for it... STAY THE HELL HOME.

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• How "Invoke P" hasn't already lead to "Invoking the 25th," who knows, but the president got Twitter-upset at General Motors, and their CEO Mary Barra specifically, for not making ventilators fast and cheap enough for him. Barra, responding through a press statement like a grownup and not a demented tantrum-throwing Twitter-baby, said GM's just waiting on the government to accept their bid so they can actually start making them.

• The $2 trillion relief package has finally passed the House—no thanks to the dumbest of Republican numbnuts, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who after being thoroughly chastised by EVERYONE IN THE FUCKING WORLD (including Trump!) now says he was merely trying to "uphold the Constitution." Enjoy rotting in hell, limp dick!

• Trump's approval rating has hit a new high after the stimulus bill passed the Senate yesterday—but still more-or-less sucks, especially when taken in context of the size of that stimulus.

• Meanwhile in Canada, which sadly isn't the US at all: "Government boosts wage subsidy to 75% for small, medium businesses to avoid layoffs during COVID-19 crisis."

• So, if we're #1 in Coronavirus cases (and we are) then how's that whole "tests being made more readily available" thing going? According to this informative graph at the New York Times, not anywhere near as well as it needs to be. (Thanks again, Trump!)


• Here's the opinion piece you should read today: "If you’ve run out of toilet paper, Woody Allen’s memoir is also made of paper."

• Yes, you're stuck at home, but now you can see the world—including virtual tours of Hawai'i volcanoes, the Great Wall of China, and more—with this great roundup from the Mercury that will help you escape safely!

• Need even MORE fun stuff to do while quarantined? Check out our very creative list of "The Best Things to Do (While Staying Home and Staying Safe) in Portland This Weekend: March 27-29."

• And finally, we don't normally approve of "fart humor"... but this time, we'll allow it.