Coronavirus pandemic in the US

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it is “simply nonsensical” to suggest that every individual in the country needs to be tested in order for the country to reopen.

“Let’s dismiss a myth about tests right now. If we tested every single American in this country at this moment, we’d have to retest them an hour later and an hour later after that. Because at any moment you could theoretically contract this virus,” McEnany said in her second briefing as press secretary. 

McEnany was asked specifically whether Americans should feel safe to return to work without receiving a coronavirus test — something President Trump and members of the administration routinely receive.   

“We have to be strategic with our testing and we have done that so far," McEnany added.

CNN's Health Unit reports doctors say it’s not realistic to test all 328 million people in the US, especially since many states are still struggling to get enough tests or testing supplies.

So in order for the economy to reopen and stay open, the US will need to triple its number of tests performed every day — from 150,000 tests a day to at least 500,000, three Harvard researchers found.

And the proportion of test results that come back positive needs to be much lower. About 20% of US test results have been positive, which is “clearly way too high,” said Dr. Thomas Tsai, one of the Harvard researchers.

The World Health Organization said an adequate range of positive test results would be 3% to 12%. Germany and South Korea have already met that goal, Tsai said.

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CNN's Holly Yan and Scottie Andrew contributed to this reporting.

The Department of Justice and the FBI are scrutinizing California’s large contracts for personal protective equipment after some early contracts went “awry,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.

His comments come after details of the nearly $1 billion contract between the state of California and BYD, a Chinese car maker, for masks are still not public.

Newsom said he promise the contract will be published soon.

He said the urgency of the outbreak required quick action and says he is looking forward to making the contract public.

“We negotiated a pretty good price considering others were paying 12 bucks a mask and the federal government was paying six, seven, eight dollars per mask," he said.

Last month, Newsom made the dramatic announcement on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show that the state had secured deals to acquire more than 200 million protective masks each month.

Since then, the terms of the agreement have been shrouded in secrecy.

Each mask will cost the state $3.30, according to Frank Girardot, spokesman for BYD, whose initials stand for Build Your Dreams, with a breakdown of $2.88 for the mask itself, $0.22 in shipping costs, and another $0.20 in duty.

Eneida Becot's husband Ed worked at Brooklyn Hospital Center transporting patients for tests before losing his life to Covid-19 about one month ago.

Speaking with CNN's Kate Bolduan this afternoon, she said he was likely exposed to the virus at the hospital before the "severity and the impact" was well known. 

Becot said she wants the world to know that besides medical workers' heroic fight against the pandemic, there are many like her husband, including transporters, security staff, housekeepers, clerks, food service works and others who are also putting their lives on the line each day.

"They also play a role and interact with patients," she said. "They are just as important as the doctors and the nurses. They should be acknowledged and they play a vital role in [patient's] care."

The White House claimed Wednesday that Democrats acted in poor faith when attempting to schedule a hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who the administration is blocking from testifying in the House even as it allows him to answer questions from the Republican-held Senate.

Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary, said the Democratic appropriations chairwoman attempted a “publicity stunt” by refusing to answer the White House’s questions about the topic for the hearing. 

“We don't have time in the middle of a pandemic for publicity stunts,” McEnany said.

House Democrats have charged the White House with stonewalling their attempts at conducting oversight of the administration’s coronavirus response by disallowing administration officials from appearing without the explicit permission of chief of staff Mark Meadows.

McEnany said Meadows held three phone calls this week with House Appropriations Committee chairwoman Nita Lowey to ascertain the purpose of the hearing at which Fauci was requested to appear. Fauci has been heavily involved in the response to the coronavirus, the biggest public heath crisis in decades.

Lowey was “unable” to tell Meadows the subject matter for the hearing, according to McEnany.

She said as part of his appearance before a Senate committee next week, Fauci would be questioned by Democrats and Republicans alike. And she said the House needed to “act in good faith” in calling administration officials to testify.

Asked earlier this week why Fauci wouldn’t appear before House committees, President Trump said the House amounted to “Trump-haters” who were trying to destroy him politically.

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Self-identified Hispanics are testing positive at a higher rate than any other demographic in Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at a news conference Wednesday.

He added: “Decades of institutional inequities and obstacles for members of our Latinx communities are now amplified in this pandemic. And while we can't fix generations of history in the span of a few months, we must advance equity in our public health response today, everywhere and anywhere we can.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot previously said Wednesday that Latino residents make up the largest percentage of Covid-19 cases in the city. They represent 37% of Covid-19 cases in the city and 25% of deaths.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on Wednesday said at least 27 meatpacking workers have died because Covid-19.

The UFCW also said that according to internal estimates, nearly 8,000 of their meat packing members have been “directly impacted” by Covid-19, including “those who have been hospitalized, tested positive, are awaiting test results, are showing symptoms, or have been exposed.”

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said she expects a "big increase in positive" coronavirus cases after employees at a Smithfield Foods processing plant in Sioux Falls were tested for Covid-19.

Noem said approximately 1,100 tests were given on the second day of the event, bringing the total number of tests to approximately 2,600.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has announced that the City Council has approved a $15 million rent relief fund for the Texas city.

The money for the program will come from the federal CARES Act, according to the statement. Landlords would need to agree to certain terms if they choose to participate in the program, and renters must meet certain requirements.

"The program is expected to help at 6,818 households," the statement said. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany discussed the strained relationship between the US and China this afternoon during a news briefing.

In recent weeks, President Trump, along with several administration officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, have spoken to dozens of foreign allies about ways to collectively address what the White House says was China's intentional effort to conceal the severity of the outbreak, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

Some more context: A nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party has dismissed claims by the Trump administration that the novel coronavirus originated from a laboratory, as the war of words over the pandemic escalates between Washington and Beijing.

Pompeo said Sunday in an interview with ABC that there was "enormous evidence" Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first detected last December. He did not provide details to support the claim.

Responding to Pompeo's comments, China's state owned Global Times newspaper said in an editorial Monday that the former CIA director had "stunned the world with groundless accusations."

"Since Pompeo said his claims are supported by 'enormous evidence,' then he should present this so-called evidence to the world, and especially to the American public who he continually tries to fool," the editorial said.

"The truth is that Pompeo does not have any evidence, and during Sunday's interview, he was bluffing."

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