The Analyzer News Roundup For May 6, 2020
New models are showing that if you remove the New York City Metro area from the U.S national coronavirus models cases remain on the rise. This includes many states like Texas which started opening businesses last week.
This comes as rural states and regions have seen a surge of cases in the last few weeks, prompting many health experts to question the wisdom of easing stay-at-home and social distancing requirements.
As many businesses and individuals struggle to gain back some sense of financial normalcy, new evidence shows COVID-19 maybe outlasting the stimulus meant to help those same Americans. The 2.2 trillion-dollar CARES Act passed in March which provided all Americans making $75,000 or less with a $1,200 check and billions in loans to businesses seems to be reaching the end of its usability.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had noted the relief effort would provide Americans with 10 weeks of funding until the economy was able to reopen again back when the stimulus bill was passed in late march, which would mean the window is closing sometime in early June.
One thing that public health officials have emphasized during this time is testing and contact tracing for COVID-19 as a way to slow the spread of the virus since social distancing requirements have not been as effective as they had hoped. However, many fear the country’s testing capacity is far below where it needs to be. Estimates show that the U.S. would need to conduct anywhere from half a million to 35 million tests a day. The U.S. currently is testing around 200,000 people a day. Last week even the Capitol physician stated its office lacks the capacity to test all 100 members of the U.S. Senate.
On a related note, many GOP senators up for election this year are scrambling as new polls show many of them down in many battle ground states, and even in some states thought to be reliably red. Montana Governor Steve Bullock (D) is leading incumbent Senator Steve Daines by seven points in a recent poll. In North Carolina, Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham is up 7 points on incumbent Senator Thom Tillis (R).
