US News Roundup: U.S. orders 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine; Michigan flooding displaces thousands and more

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Biden, Trump campaigns tamp down spending in April

U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden cut spending on their presidential campaigns in April, according to campaign finance disclosures filed on Wednesday. Separate filings with the Federal Elections Commission showed an increase in spending by Trump's Republican Party and only a small decrease in Democratic Party spending, signs that outlay around the November presidential contest continues in earnest despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Michigan flooding displaces thousands, encroaches on chemical plant

Rising floodwaters unleashed by two dam failures submerged parts of the central Michigan town of Midland on Wednesday, displacing thousands of residents and spreading into a Dow Chemical Co plant in the riverfront city. By late morning, the company said, floodwaters were confirmed to be "comingling with on-site containment ponds" at the sprawling Dow plant, located just upstream from a Superfund hazardous waste cleanup site on the rain-swollen Tittabawassee River.

NY City escapees to Hamptons can get coronavirus house-calls

An elite medical-services provider will start offering in-home coronavirus testing and treatment in the Hamptons, where many of New York City's wealthy residents have relocated since the start of the pandemic, the company said on Thursday. Sollis Health members, who pay annual fees starting at $3,000, will now be able to get tested in their Hamptons homes for an extra $1,000 per house call, the company said. The charge covers immediate family members and staff.

U.S. schools should only reopen with social distancing as benchmarks met: CDC

U.S. schools shuttered by the coronavirus should pursue a carefully phased reopening only after public health benchmarks are met, and summer camps should be limited largely only to children from the immediate area, federal guidance recommends. The guidelines, released late on Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), come from a set of suggestions for specific settings, including restaurants, mass transit systems, and employers with workers at high risk.

Exclusive: A quarter of Americans are hesitant about a coronavirus vaccine - Reuters/Ipsos poll

A quarter of Americans have little or no interest in taking a coronavirus vaccine, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday found, with some voicing concern that the record pace at which vaccine candidates are being developed could compromise safety. While health experts say a vaccine to prevent infection is needed to return life to normal, the survey points to a potential trust issue for the Trump administration already under fire for its often contradictory safety guidance during the pandemic.

Active shooter at Texas naval air station 'neutralized': U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy said on Thursday an active shooter at its Corpus Christi naval air station in Texas had been "neutralized," with one security force member injured in the events that unfolded in the early morning hours. "Naval Security Forces at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi responded to an active shooter at approximately 6:15 a.m. this morning," said the U.S. Navy Information Office in a statement.

California to give guidelines for restarting TV and movie production

California on Monday will roll out guidelines for the resumption of production of Hollywood movies and TV shows, but Governor Gavin Newsom warned that Los Angeles County would likely be excluded in the first phase. Newsom told a film and TV industry roundtable on Wednesday that the guidelines would "allow counties that are in better condition than some of the others, to be able to move forward and ... allow some movement in your industry."

U.S. orders 300 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccine

The U.S. government has ordered 300 million doses of a potential COVID-19 virus being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and hopes the first doses can be made available by October, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday. "This contract with AstraZeneca is a major milestone in Operation Warp Speed's work toward a safe, effective, widely available vaccine by 2021," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

U.S. nursing homes plagued by infection control issues pre-COVID-19: report

U.S. nursing homes have been plagued with infection control deficiencies even before the coronavirus pandemic turned them into hotspots for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, a government report said on Wednesday. Eighty-two percent of all nursing homes had an infection prevention and control deficiency cited in one or more years from 2013-2017, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Divided by COVID-19: Democratic U.S. areas hit three times as hard as Republican ones

As America's response to the coronavirus pandemic splits along partisan lines, a Reuters analysis may help explain why: Death rates in Democratic areas are triple those in Republican ones. By Wednesday, U.S. counties that voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election reported 39 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 residents, according to an analysis of demographic and public health data.