Congress sends White House $100 billion coronavirus aid package
Congress sent President Donald Trump a bipartisan-approved coronavirus aid package Wednesday afternoon. The emergency funding is the second allotment of money that lawmakers have sent the president since the coronavirus first spread to the United States.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his Republican peers who were concerned by the more than $100 billion dollar price tag and small business sick leave provision to “gag and vote for it anyway,” The New York Times reported.
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee didn’t comply and voted against it.
He called the appropriation a “Rube Goldberg machine of unfunded mandates and tax benefits that will only end up hurting workers,” on Twitter.
A third appropriation is already being worked on in Congress and could include additional economic assistance for business and cash for Americans to help weather the pandemic, an idea first floated by Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.
‘Wartime President’ Trump to sign emergency authorization
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he plans to sign the Defense Production Act — from the Korean War era — which allows the president to increase manufacturing of emergency supplies to combat the coronavirus, The Associates Press reported.
The president referred to himself as a “wartime president.”
Health care providers on the frontline of the pandemic have requested additional protective gear and lifesaving equipment like ventilators needed to treat the most dire COVID-19 patients.
Trump said two military hospital ships will be sent to New York City and the West Coast, according to The New York Times. The ship bound for New York, the USNS Comfort, will not be ready for weeks while it receives repairs in Norfolk, Virginia, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Coronavirus can live for days on hard surfaces
A new study shows that the novel coronavirus can remain infectious on surfaces for several days and for hours in the air, Reuters reports. The study was conducted by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
The scientists created aerosolized droplets — similar to those produced by a cough or sneeze — and tested their viability on different surfaces. The coronavirus remained infectious for three days on plastic and steel, while only survived a day on cardboard.
Utah company approved to begin making COVID-19 tests
A Utah molecular company, Co-Diagnostics, has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tuesday evening to begin to distribute a diagnostic test for the coronavirus. From a lab in Salt Lake City, Co-Diagnostics can make 50,000 tests daily and 100,000 more a day in India.
“We applaud the FDA’s decision to recognize the dire need for increased access to high-quality COVID-19 tests, and to adapt as the situation demands in light of a public health emergency,” said CEO Dwight Egan in a statement.
Co-Diagnostics sells tests to labs in the U.S. and around the globe.