US Domestic News Roundup: Trump says U.S. may be getting to top of coronavirus curve; Trump holds support of political base in virus-prone states and more


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 08-04-2020 18:47 IST | Created: 08-04-2020 18:27 IST
US Domestic News Roundup: Trump says U.S. may be getting to top of coronavirus curve; Trump holds support of political base in virus-prone states and more
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Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Military landlord, under fire following Reuters reports, issues improvement plan

Military housing landlord Balfour Beatty Communities, the focus of a Justice Department inquiry following Reuters reports it falsified maintenance logs, said it has taken steps to prevent the practice and make its homes safer for service families. In an improvement action plan filed with the U.S. Air Force in December and approved in February, the landlord detailed a series of steps it said it has taken since coming under federal scrutiny.

From deliveries in Arizona to fish markets in California, coronavirus changes how we buy our food

Eric Cohn used to wear a respirator mask, goggles and gloves only to protect against mold and asbestos as he restored homes in Tucson, Arizona. Now he dons the same gear in his new job - shopping for quarantined customers. "People ask me where I get this mask every day," the 34-year-old said. "They say: you look good! I say I'm not trying to look good. I'm trying to be safe."

Special Report: How federal snafus slowed testing at a top U.S. hospital

The lab directors at the University of Virginia Medical Center felt powerless. In early March, people began arriving with symptoms of COVID-19. One complained of a cough and had just returned from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak erupted. An elderly patient, already on end-of-life care, had a mysterious respiratory infection. Another, struggling to breathe, had come from a nursing home.

U.S. coronavirus restrictions create split among religious liberty advocates

When an evangelical Christian pastor was arrested in Florida for flouting a stay-at-home order aimed at curbing the new coronavirus, a conservative religious liberty group was quick to leap to his defense. But the decision by Liberty Counsel to represent Rodney Howard-Browne, co-founder of The River at Tampa Bay Church, marks a split among religious liberty advocates, with others preaching caution on going to court in the midst of a global pandemic.

CDC removes unusual guidance to doctors about drug favored by Trump

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed from its website highly unusual guidance informing doctors on how to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs recommended by President Donald Trump to treat the coronavirus. The move comes three days after Reuters reported that the CDC published key dosing information involving the two antimalarial drugs based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.

Trump says U.S. may be getting to top of coronavirus curve

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States might be getting to the top of the "curve" of the coronavirus outbreak and said he did not see an early written warning about the pandemic from a top White House aide. The president said he was reluctant to talk about it but that the country might be on track for far fewer deaths than projected. Trump's coronavirus task force previously projected, based on models, that as many as 240,000 people in the United States could die in the pandemic.

'Hardest day': New York's Cuomo sees virus slowing despite record death toll

Even as medical teams struggled to save an onslaught of gravely ill coronavirus patients and deaths hit new highs, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations seemed to be leveling off in New York state, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday. New York was one of several states, along with the nation as a whole, to post their highest daily loss of life from COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus. A staggering 731 fatalities were reported in Cuomo's state alone.

Most Americans, unlike Trump, want mail-in ballots for November if coronavirus threatens: Reuters/Ipsos poll

Most Americans, including a majority of Republicans, want the government to require mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 presidential election if the coronavirus outbreak still threatens the public this autumn, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election this year, has been trying with other Republicans to discourage efforts to expand voting by mail, saying it would increase the chance of voter fraud.

Trump holds support of political base in virus-prone states

Earl Kerr, a 57-year-old electrical contractor in Jacksonville, Florida, says he fears for his 80-year-old mother, who entered an assisted living facility just before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States. And he says he worries that the tanking economy will sink his small business. But he has faith in U.S. President Donald Trump to handle the crisis. He’s heard the widespread criticism that Trump initially didn’t take the pandemic seriously, that his administration failed to procure vital medical supplies and left overwhelmed states to fend for themselves. Kerr has a different take.

African-Americans dying of coronavirus at higher rates, preliminary data shows

The new coronavirus is killing African-Americans at a higher rate than the U.S. population at large, according to preliminary numbers from Louisiana, Michigan and Illinois that officials say point to disparities in health and healthcare access. The figures were reported by state and city leaders at briefings on the coronavirus, including Louisiana Governor John Edwards who said more than 70% of the 512 people killed by the coronavirus in Louisiana as of Monday were black, a much larger percentage than the state's population that black people represent, about 33 percent.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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