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Law360 (April 27, 2020, 11:26 PM EDT ) The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a blueprint for expanded coronavirus testing, the governors of Texas and Ohio announced plans to reopen shuttered businesses, and the number of confirmed U.S. infections was poised to pass 1 million. Here are three key developments to know.
Feds Tell States to Take Reins on Testing
The administration's blueprint for expanding access to diagnostic tests assigned the federal government a largely advisory role and said that it would "act as [a] supplier of last resort."
The document placed considerably more pressure on states, saying they have a duty to "identify and overcome barriers to efficient testing (e.g., underutilization of deployed assets, misallocation of supplies, logistical failures)."
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ranking member on the Senate health committee, lambasted the blueprint in a statement late Monday, asserting that it "attempts to shirk obviously federal responsibilities" and "does nothing new."
The administration released the blueprint in conjunction with a news conference that President Donald Trump held at the White House Rose Garden on Monday evening. The event included remarks from top executives at major pharmacy chains and test makers — including CVS Health Corp., Walgreen Co., LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics — that are assisting with efforts to make tests more accessible.
The news conference was technically held in lieu of the nightly coronavirus task force briefing, although there was little apparent difference. Earlier Monday, the White House canceled the task force's briefing for the first time in recent memory, a move that came a few days after Trump sparked a firestorm of criticism for suggesting — sarcastically, he later claimed — that injections of disinfectant into the lungs of COVID-19 patients might be beneficial.
Trump on Monday night was asked if he takes responsibility for any harm, with a journalist noting that there have been reports of increased calls to poison control centers in the wake of the president's comments.
"No, I don't," the president replied.
Texas, Ohio Guide Businesses on Reopenings
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday laid out what he called the first phase of a plan to reopen the Lone Star State. The plan consisted of an executive order outlining how "essential services" can operate as well as a lengthy reopening report with guidance for nursing homes and the elderly, who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.
Abbott's executive order said that a wide array of businesses — including retailers, restaurants, malls and movie theaters — can reopen on Friday at 25% of listed occupancy.
Separately, the reopening report cited "the rapid increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in nursing homes and assisted living communities in Texas." It recommended various measures to prevent further infections, such as notifying individuals who've come into contact with patients who test positive for COVID-19.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday also issued guidelines for the reopening of businesses in the Buckeye State. Writing on Twitter, he said that "all health care procedures that do not require an overnight stay in a hospital can move forward," and that dentists can "begin full steam ahead," starting Friday.
DeWine added that "manufacturing, distribution and construction will open back up" on May 4 along with "general office environments," while adding that telecommuting will still be preferable.
Texas and Ohio are the second- and seventh-most populous states, respectively. Both states are lower on the list of how many coronavirus infections have occurred in each of the 50 states, either on a per-capita basis or in raw numbers.
It's expected that states will get their economic engines running again at significantly different paces. The White House in mid-April described metrics that states should follow to determine how and when to let businesses open up again.
US Infections Near 7-Figure Mark
The number of Americans who've tested positive for COVID-19 was almost at 1 million late Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The next-closest countries were Spain with 230,000 cases, Italy with 200,000 cases and France with 166,000 cases.
Infections in the U.S. for several weeks have usually been increasing at roughly 25,000 to 30,000 new cases per day, meaning that the rate of increase is actually declining. The number of daily tests has been rising significantly.
The U.S. death toll stands at more than 56,000, including roughly 5,000 fatalities in New York City that local officials have linked probably but inconclusively to COVID-19. One month ago, on March 27, the nationwide death toll was less than 2,000, according to researchers at the COVID Tracking Project.
Trump was asked at Monday night's news conference whether a commander-in-chief who presides over such an immense casualty count in such a short time deserves reelection. He replied by citing a projection of as many as 2.2 million American deaths — an apparent reference to an estimate produced earlier in the crisis by the Imperial College in London that was based on no actions being taken to stem the virus.
"We've lost a lot of people, but if you look at what [the] original projections were, 2.2 million, we're probably heading to 60,000, 70,000," Trump said. "I think we've made a lot of really good decisions."
--Editing by Emily Kokoll.
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