Coronavirus Live Updates: Governors Seek More Testing in Hardest-Hit Areas

Here’s what you need to know:

The federal government is asked to help with testing.What could the year ahead look like for the U.S.?School cafeterias are now feeding whole families.How the coronavirus became a new frontier in the fight for civil rights.A return for baseball requires a new debate.With lockdowns in place, Jehovah’s Witnesses are limited in spreading their message.What’s happening around the world.ImageCredit…Desiree Rios for The New York Times

The federal government is asked to help with testing.

The United States was pulled in different directions in dealing with the coronavirus this weekend as the governors of New York and New Jersey called on the Trump administration to help them ramp up testing, President Trump pushed people in some states to rebel against lockdowns and governors considered easing social distancing restrictions.

“I’m not asking the federal government to do more than they need to,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Saturday. “But we do need their coordination. We need their partnership.”

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey has said he would be “the happiest guy” if he were able to start reopening the state on June 1. But he told ABC News’s “Powerhouse Politics” podcast last week that he and other governors in the region needed the federal government’s assistance to carry out broad testing and to trace the contact that infected people have had with others.

New estimates by researchers at Harvard University suggest that the United States as a whole cannot safely reopen unless over the next month it conducts more than three times the number of coronavirus tests it is currently administering.

Data from New York and New Jersey appeared encouraging on Saturday. In both states, the curve of new infections appeared to be flattening or dropping. In New Jersey, the number of new cases and hospitalizations was leveling off, and New York reported its lowest daily death toll in more than two weeks, at 540.

But Mr. Cuomo emphasized the need for federal help to carry the widespread coronavirus testing that officials say is necessary to reopen New York’s economy. He and Mr. Trump have clashed over the level of federal aid given to the state, and the president has suggested that certain governors have not been demonstrably grateful for the aid. Mr. Trump has also encouraged protests of social distancing restrictions in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia, states with democratic governors.

Mr. Cuomo noted that 36 of New York’s newly reported deaths were at nursing homes, which he described as “the single biggest fear in all of this.” New Jersey’s health commissioner said 40 percent of the state’s 4,070 coronavirus-related deaths had occurred at long-term care facilities, which have been overwhelmed by the virus.

Governor Murphy called the federal government an “indispensable partner” in stopping the pandemic. “So we’ve got to find common ground,” he said.

An average of 146,000 people per day have been tested for the coronavirus in the United States this month, according to the Covid Tracking Project. To reopen the country by mid-May, the Harvard estimates suggest that the number of daily tests performed between now and then should be 500,000 to 700,000.

That level of testing would be required in order to identify most people who are infected and isolate them from people who are healthy, the researchers say.

Separately on Saturday, federal officials acknowledged that sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had caused contamination that rendered the nation’s first coronavirus tests ineffective.

Two of the three C.D.C. laboratories in Atlanta that created the coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, which meant that the agency sent tests that did not work properly to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

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As some governors look to ease coronavirus restrictions, public health experts say the country needs at least half a million tests per day to safely reopen.

What could the year ahead look like for the U.S.?

When can people safely emerge from their homes? How long, realistically, before there is a coronavirus treatment or vaccine? How can the virus be kept at bay?

More than 20 experts in public health, medicine, epidemiology and history shared their thoughts on the future during in-depth interviews with The New York Times.

Some said that American ingenuity, once fully engaged, might produce advances to ease the burdens. Several saw a path forward that depends on factors that are difficult but possible: a carefully staggered approach to reopening, widespread coronavirus testing and tracking, a treatment that works, adequate resources for health care providers — and eventually an effective vaccine.

“My optimistic side says the virus will ease off in the summer and a vaccine will arrive like the cavalry,” one said. “But I’m learning to guard against my essentially optimistic nature.”

Most experts believed that once the crisis is over, the nation and its economy will revive quickly — but that there will be no escaping a period of intense pain.

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A detailed county map shows the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, with tables of the number of cases by county.

School cafeterias are now feeding whole families.

After the coronavirus shut down America’s education system, districts fortified their school meals programs to ensure that their most needy students would stay fed. One month in, school leaders realize that the federal programs set up to subsidize meals for tens of millions of students cannot meet the demands of an emergency that has turned their cafeterias into food banks and community kitchens.

Several districts are now feeding adults and sending days’ worth of food home for entire families. And they are doing so at a cost that under federal rules they will not recoup.

The nation’s 12 largest school districts will spend $12 million to $19 million through the end of June to meet the demands of their pandemic meals operations, estimated Katie Wilson, the executive director of the Urban School Food Alliance, whose members include large urban districts in Los Angeles, Baltimore, New York and Chicago.

The organization, which is pleading for relief from Congress, the Agriculture Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has also set up a donation page to help districts cover costs.

“Every one of these schools that has their doors open are literally heroes on the front line,” Ms. Wilson said. “Food workers are now first responders.”

How the coronavirus became a new frontier in the fight for civil rights.

The coronavirus pandemic has hit African-Americans and Hispanics especially hard, including in New York, where the virus is twice as deadly for those populations. So in the midst of a national quarantine, civil rights activists are organizing campaigns at home from their laptops and cellphones.

Collectively, the goals are targeted legislation, financial investments, and government and corporate accountability. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights leader, is calling for the creation of a new Kerner Commission to document the “racism and discrimination built into public policies” that make the pandemic measurably worse for some African-Americans.

“It’s really hard to overstate the critical moment we are in as a people, given how this virus has ripped through our community,” said Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization with 1.7 million members. “We know the pain will not be shared equally.”

Mr. Robinson’s organization and others, such as the National Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P., have hosted telephone and virtual town halls, drafted state and federal policy recommendations and sent letters to legislators.

Smaller local groups are working around social distancing restrictions to rally support. And across the country, individuals are making direct pleas for all to help slow the outbreak’s spread.

“I am trying to sound the alarm because I see the devastation in the black community,” Michael Fowler, the coroner of Dougherty County, said hours after the Georgia county’s 91st Covid-19 death. “Preachers, a judge, a church choir member, all walks of life are dying. My job is to pronounce death, but I believe in trying to save lives.”

A return for baseball requires a new debate.

If M.L.B. and the players’ union need to fight over the details about a return to play, it may mean that such a return is possible, our columnist Tyler Kepner writes.

America wants a baseball season. Nobody knows quite how that will look amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those are the only certainties for a sport that has an unbroken chain of seasons with at least 100 games stretching back to the 19th century.

Hopeful hints emerged last week from Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who both touted the feasibility of having teams plays in empty ballparks. But a quandary loomed: If teams cannot sell tickets, how much will the players be paid?

“The issue over pay without fans is going to get ugly,” said a top official of one team who insisted on anonymity to speak candidly about league matters. “Owners will claim they’d lose money by playing without fans if players get their full per-game salaries, and it may be true. They’re going to want a big reduction in pay from players.”

When Major League Baseball and the players’ union agreed on new rules for the delayed season on March 26 — the original opening day — they vowed to discuss “the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at appropriate substitute neutral sites.”

For the owners, that set up a negotiation on pay structure. But the players’ side has a different interpretation of “economic feasibility,” according to the agent Scott Boras.

In a way, this would be a welcome fight, because it would force baseball to set out a clear path to returning. That does not yet exist, and it depends largely on the availability of coronavirus tests, the spread of the pandemic, and authorization from state and local governments.

With lockdowns in place, Jehovah’s Witnesses are limited in spreading their message.

Across America, most religious groups have stopped coming together in large numbers to pray and hold services, in keeping with stay-at-home orders. They have improvised with online preaching and even drive-in services. Mormons have stopped going door-to-door in the U.S. and called home many missionaries working abroad.

Jehovah’s Witnesses — with 1.3 million members in the U.S. who hand out brochures on sidewalks and subway platforms and ring doorbells — are one of the most visible religious groups in the nation. Members are called on to share scriptures in person with nonmembers, warning of an imminent Armageddon and hoping to baptize them with the prospect of living forever.

Yet the pandemic led the group’s leaders to decide that, in the interest of safety, Jehovah’s Witnesses should stop witnessing, its practice of in-person attempts at converting people to the group.

The move was the first of its kind in the nearly 150 years that the group has existed. It followed anguished discussions at Watchtower headquarters, with leaders deciding on March 20 that knocking on doors would leave the impression that members were disregarding the safety of those they hoped to convert.

“This was not an easy decision for anybody,” said Robert Hendriks, the group’s U.S. spokesman. “As you know, our ministry is our life.”

What’s happening around the world.

Dozens of performers join a global concert to benefit coronavirus relief.

A cross-platform global concert seeking to raise money for Covid-19 response efforts featured performances by some of the biggest names in music on Saturday.

With eight hours of performances, the event, which was organized by the antipoverty organization Global Citizens, had a scheduled run time almost as long as its name (“One World: Together at Home Special to Celebrate Covid-19 Workers”).

“It is so important to think globally and support the World Health Organization to curb the pandemic and prevent future outbreaks,” Lady Gaga, who helped curate the all-star lineup, said at a news conference on Monday. “We want to highlight the gravity of this historical, unprecedented and cultural movement.”

The last two hours of the show, which featured Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel as hosts, aired on NBC, CBS and ABC.

The event came together when the United Nations and the W.H.O. asked Global Citizen to support their Covid-19 response by bringing together the world through music and inspiring people to take action.

Contributions from corporate partners will go to the W.H.O.’s Solidarity Response Fund to support and equip health care workers across the globe. The W.H.O. has shipped two million pieces of personal protection equipment and supplies to 68 countries.

The initiative had raised more than $35 million.

Clearing up confusion about keeping safe distances.

Six feet is the suggested space to keep between people in stores and on casual strolls, but when we walk briskly or run, air moves differently around us, increasing the space required to maintain a proper social distance.

What it’s like when Congress works from home.

ImageCredit…Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York TimesImageCredit…Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York Times

With the Capitol shuttered until at least early May and the House considering remote voting to facilitate a more prolonged absence from Washington, members of Congress are sequestered at home like the rest of America, forced to reimagine how to do their jobs virtually.

It is a singular challenge for lawmakers, whose tasks typically revolve around human contact with a rotating cast of constituents, staff, lobbyists and fellow lawmakers. They have come up with creative (some more than others) solutions.

The Times spoke to lawmakers about how they’re adapting to the new world.

Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, is sharing both intimate details and public-service information in a Facebook diary. Senator Angus King, independent of Maine, is meeting constituents — from a distance — in the open air. Many other lawmakers have turned to teleconferencing. And at least one, Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin, has started a podcast.

Those we’ve lost: Tarlach MacNiallais, who fought for gay and disability rights, dies at 57.

Tarlach MacNiallais was known for his decades of advocacy for L.G.B.T.Q. and disability rights.

“A battering ram on issues of importance,” according to Harriet Golden, a vice president at A.H.R.C. New York City, an organization that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, where Mr. MacNiallais worked for nearly 35 years.

Moving from Northern Ireland to New York in the mid-1980s, Mr. MacNiallais became involved in the protracted struggle by L.G.B.T.Q. groups to be fully included in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Fifth Avenue. Many years later, he became a member of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade formation committee, and marched in the parade with the Lavender and Green Alliance in 2016.

Mr. MacNiallais died on April 1. He was 57. The cause was complications of the coronavirus, according to friends and family.

Reporting was contributed by Erica L. Green, Lola Fadulu, Audra D.S. Burch, Donald G. McNeil Jr., Nicholas Fandos, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Dionne Searcey, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Melina Delkic and Tyler Kepner.

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