AP News in Brief at 6:09 p.m. EDT
Trump taps powers to boost virus response; Senate OKs bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting twin health and economic crises, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will invoke emergency powers to marshal critical medical supplies against a coronavirus pandemic threatening to overwhelm hospitals and other treatment centers. The Senate acted on the economic front, approving legislation to guarantee sick leave to workers sickened by the disease.
Trump described himself as a “wartime president" as virus cases surged and the markets fell, and he took a series of extraordinary steps to steady a battered nation, its day-to-day life fundamentally altered.
Most immediately, Trump said he would employ the Defense Production Act as needed, giving the government more power to steer production by private companies and try to overcome shortages in masks, ventilators and other supplies.
Trump also said he will expand the nation's testing capacity and deploy a Navy hospital ship to New York City, which is rapidly becoming an epicenter of the pandemic, and another such ship to the West Coast.
The Housing and Urban Development Department will suspend foreclosures and evictions through April. A growing number of Americans face losing jobs and missing rent and mortgage payments.
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What's Happening: Borders closing, elective surgery delayed
These are some of the latest developments Wednesday in the world's coronavirus pandemic:
— NUMBER OF WORLDWIDE CASES TOPS 200,000
The number of people infected worldwide surpassed the 200,000 mark. Deaths topped 8,000, but the number of people considered recovered reached over 82,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The countries with the most confirmed cases were China, Italy, Iran, Spain and Germany. The countries with the most confirmed deaths were China, Italy, Iran, Spain and France.
— TRUMP INVOKES EMERGENCY AUTHORITY
President Donald Trump moved to invoke a federal law that allows the U.S. government to marshal the private sector to fight the coronavirus epidemic. The economic damage from the global pandemic mounted with word that Detroit’s Big Three automakers agreed to shut down all their factories to protect workers.
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Stocks tumble, investors dash for cash amid recession fears
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks tumbled more than 5% on Wall Street Wednesday, and the Dow erased virtually all its gains since President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration. Even prices for investments seen as safe during downturns fell as the coronavirus outbreak chokes the economy and investors rush to raise cash.
Markets have been incredibly volatile for weeks as Wall Street and the White House acknowledge the rising likelihood that the pandemic will cause a recession. The typical day this month has seen the stock market swing up or down by 4.9%. Over the last decade, it was just 0.4%.
It was just a day before that the Dow surged more than 5% after Trump promised massive aid to the economy, but the number of infections keeps climbing, and the Dow erased all but 0.4% of its gain since Trump’s inauguration. The S&P 500, which dictates how 401(k) accounts perform much more than the Dow, is down 29.2% from its record set last month, though it's still up 12.1% since Election Day 2016.
The S&P 500's slide was so sharp that trading was halted for 15 minutes Wednesday. The index ended the day down 5.2% after earlier being down as much as 9.8%.
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it’s parking at least half its planes to catch up with a plummeting drop in travel. Detroit’s big three automakers have agreed to close their North American factories to protect workers. And at the New York Stock Exchange, all trading will go electronic after the trading floor begins a temporary closure Monday.
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Sick staff fueled outbreak in Seattle-area care centers
SEATTLE (AP) — Staff members who worked while sick at multiple long-term care facilities contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among vulnerable elderly in the Seattle area, federal health officials said Wednesday.
At least 30 coronavirus deaths have been linked to Life Care Center in Kirkland. A report Wednesday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided the most detailed account to date of what drove the outbreak.
Public health authorities who surveyed long-term care facilities in the area found facilities didn't have enough personal protective equipment or other items such as alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
They also said nursing homes in the area are vulnerable because staff members worked with symptoms, worked in more than one facility, and sometimes didn't know about or follow recommendations about protecting their eyes or being careful while in close contact with ill patients.
Nursing home officials also were slow to think that symptoms might be caused by coronavirus, and faced problems from limited testing ability, according to the report.
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Coronavirus layoffs spark surge in state jobless claims
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — In Ohio, more than 48,000 people applied for jobless benefits during the first two days of this week. The tally during the same period the prior week: just 1,825.
In neighboring Pennsylvania, about 70,000 people sought unemployment aid in a single day — six times the total for the entire previous week.
Jobless claims are surging across the U.S. after government officials ordered millions of workers, students and shoppers to stay at home as a precaution against spreading the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
“We’ve been getting flooded with calls,” said John Dodds, director of the nonprofit Philadelphia Unemployment Project. “It's going to be a big mess, a double mess: illness and unemployment.”
The growing number of people filing for unemployment checks raises fresh questions about whether states have stockpiled enough money since the last recession to tide over idled workers until the crisis ends. Some fear the demand for help could outpace the states' ability to pay claims.
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Trump dubs COVID-19 'Chinese virus' despite hate crime risks
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t think calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus" — or the "kung-flu," as one administration official reportedly called it — puts Asian Americans at risk of retaliation despite growing reports they are facing virus-related discrimination.
Since coronavirus infections started appearing in the United States in January, Asian Americans have shared stories of minor aggression to blatant attacks from people blaming them for the pandemic, which has killed more than 130 people in the United States.
Among the hate crimes reported in major cities with Chinese communities: An Asian man in a Brooklyn subway car who was yelled at and sprayed with Febreze air freshener. In Los Angeles, a 16-year-old boy of Asian descent said other students had bullied him and accused him of carrying the virus. Even before cities began shutting down all restaurants to stop the spread of the virus, Chinese restaurant owners were already experiencing steep declines in business because of racial stigma.
Asked why he keeps calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” when scientists say the disease doesn't respect borders and is not caused by ethnicity, Trump told reporters at the White House that he doesn't consider it a racist remark.
“It’s not racist at all," Trump said, adding that he calls it the “Chinese virus” because he wants to be accurate. He indicated his terminology was a warranted pushback to Chinese officials who have been suggesting the U.S. military might have introduced the virus to Wuhan, the Chinese city where it was first reported in late 2019.
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Q&A: What does 90-day tax payment delay mean for filers?
The Trump administration has announced that most individuals and businesses will be allowed to delay paying their federal tax bills for 90 days as part of an emergency relief plan amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Some questions and answers about the delay and its potential impact on the U.S. economy.
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DO I STILL NEED TO FILE?
Yes.
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Two 20-somethings extend 'invisible hands' in virus outbreak
NEW YORK (AP) — Liam Elkind's big heart and his break from college was a highlight of 83-year-old Carol Sterling's week.
The retired arts administrator has been sheltering at home during the coronavirus outbreak, unable to shop for herself. Yearning for some fresh food, she found the 20-year-old through their synagogue, and soon he showed up at her door with a bag full of salad fixings and oranges.
Elkind, a junior at Yale, and a friend, Simone Policano, amassed 1,300 volunteers in 72 hours to deliver groceries and medicine to older New Yorkers and other vulnerable people. They call themselves Invisible Hands, and they do something else in the process — provide human contact and comfort, at a safe distance, of course.
On delivery day Tuesday, Elkind and Sterling met for the first time over her paper bag of groceries outside her 15th-floor apartment on the Upper West Side. It was a moment of “tikkun olam” between the two congregants of the progressive and service-minded Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
The Hebrew for “world repair” is a phrase synonymous with the notion of social action.
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Brady deal could make Bucs relevant; ticket demand spikes
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter free agency with expectations of signing Tom Brady and bolstering a defense that will be one of the keys to helping the six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback be successful with his new team.
There’s been no official announcement on Brady joining the Bucs after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. However, there’s already an increased demand for tickets.
Tampa Bay ranked 30th among 32 teams in home attendance, averaging 51,898 per game last season.
Within hours of reports of the team closing in on a deal with Brady, the website selling season passes for 2020 showed more than 2,400 people in a queue waiting for an opportunity to make purchases.
Brady ended his historic run in New England, announcing on social media Tuesday that he would become a free agent for the first time in his career.
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Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled moon, dies at 88
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, died Wednesday at age 88.
His family said he died in his sleep in Houston. No cause of death was given.
“Al was an American hero whose achievements in space and on Earth will never be forgotten," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement. He also praised Worden for his appearances on “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" to explain his moon mission to children.
Worden flew to the moon in 1971 along with David Scott and Jim Irwin. As command module pilot, Worden remained in lunar orbit aboard the Endeavour while Scott and Irwin descended to the surface and tried out NASA's first moon buggy.
Scott is one of four moonwalkers still alive. Irwin died in 1991.