Hey, if Tim Gunn is walking around all day wearing pajamas... WHY CANT YOU?
Hey, if Tim Gunn is walking around all day wearing pajamas... WHY CAN'T YOU? Amy Sussman / Getty Images

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 Oregon Health Authority reports that Oregon now has a total of 2,759 positive and presumptive (meaning the patient shows symptoms and has been in close contact with someone who tested positive) coronavirus cases. 109 people have died thus far from the virus that we know of.

• Oregon's COVID-19 State of Emergency was expected to be extended through to the end of May after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee did the same last week. But Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed an executive order on Friday that extended it to July 6.

• The very next day, hundreds of misguided Oregonians (and Joey Gibson) gathered in Salem to flout social distancing guidelines and protest having a state government that wants to severely limit how sick and dead its citizenry will get.

• According to workers' comp claims, hundreds of Washington state health care employees and first responders have become sick from COVID-19.

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• A leaked draft of a recent CDC report estimates COVID-19 cases will surge to 200,000 a day by the end of this month, with per-day-deaths reaching 3,000 in that same timeframe. The White House has disavowed this draft, and the model's creator said the projections were works-in-progress—although he did make sure to insist that 100,000 cases per-day by June 1 is "within the realm of possibility."

• ICYMI:


• The US Treasury announced they're expecting to borrow $3 trillion between now and June to cover the federal relief efforts they're implementing to combat COVID-19. For comparison, the Treasury borrowed 1.28 trillion for the entirety of 2019.

• Read up about the new national movement to permanently suspend rent and mortgage payments during the COVID-10 pandemic. Some members of Congress are paying attention.


• Italy, second only to the US in total COVID-19 fatalities, is beginning to re-open, with much of its construction, wholesale, and manufacturing industries going back to work today. Restaurants are also re-opening, but are limited to takeout options. Italy's lockdown began March 9.

• Don't let anyone shame you for rocking sweats & shorts while sheltered-in-place, especially not after TIM GUNN HIMSELF is on the record as saying he's spent most of his quarantine in a T-shirt, jammy-pants, and a robe.

• If you need some cheering up after reading all this, turn your bad mood around quick with the Mercury Cheer Up Club, featuring the internet's biggest daily laughs!

• Look, you're stuck inside, creative, going nuts, and need money, right? Then enter your short confinement-themed film in the Confinement (online) Film Festival, better known as CoFF!

• And finally, this dog loves trampolines a little too much.