The Daily Moth 3-18-2020: Coronavirus updates and Joe Biden wins 3 primaries

Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth. It is Wednesday, March 18. Here are the latest updates with the coronavirus pandemic.

As of 3:00 this afternoon, there are over 214,000 cases of coronavirus in the world and over 7,300 cases in the United States. Canada has over 650 cases while Mexico has almost 100 cases.

President Trump announced this morning that there was a mutual agreement with Canada to close the northern border to “non-essential traffic.” Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said the two countries’ governments reached an agreement after several days of talks and that he talked with Trump this morning. People who want to travel for recreation and tourism will be barred from crossing the border, but that crossings would be allowed for trade and business purposes. Those who commute for work-related purposes will be allowed entry.

For the southern U.S. border with Mexico, it remains open with normal operations. Fox News reported that President Trump is considering a plan to turn away those who seek asylum and those who illegally crossed the border without detaining them or giving them due process in court.

President Trump announced in a briefing from the White House this afternoon that he has invoked the “Defense Production Act,” which is typically a wartime measure, to direct factories to produce mass quantities of face masks, gowns, gloves, and other medical supplies for healthcare workers.

Two military hospital ships will dock in New York City and a location on the West Coast to support hospitals.

President Trump said the Department of Housing and Urban Development would suspend all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.

Vice President Mike Pence said they are expanding coronavirus testing, increasing it by the thousands everyday. Trump said there is development of a self-swab test.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said that public health experts were alarmed by reports from France and Italy that showed millennials, generally those between the ages of 20 to 40, were infected at a higher rate than older groups of people and that a number is becoming seriously ill.

President Trump tweeted several times this morning that the coronavirus was a “Chinese virus.” A reporter asked him if it was a racist term out of concern that it could put Chinese-Americans at risk. Trump said it isn’t because “It comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China.” Several Democratic lawmakers said the term would lead to xenophobia, but Republican lawmakers have said it’s an appropriate term.

Now on the topic of the federal government sending checks to Americans — Trump did not announce how much money would be in the checks. He was asked if it would be $1,000 or more. Trump said the amount was to be determined and that everybody wants to go big. It seems like it’ll be at least $1,000.

How will the checks be sent? The Washington Post explained that it will be based on information the IRS has based on tax returns. If you have moved, then you shouldn’t worry if you filed a mail forwarding form with the USPS. For Social Security beneficiaries, the money should come through in the same way that the SS checks come in, whether it is direct deposit into your banks or via mail. It’s the same with any past IRS payments, it’ll go through the same way.

News outlets reported that the White House is asking Congress for $500 billion for two separate mass payments to American taxpayers. The first payment would be on April 6 and the second would be on May 18. The payments will correspond with Americans’ income and family size.

The Trump administration is also asking for $300 billion to help small businesses to continue to pay their employees, $50 billion for the airline industry and $150 billion for loans for other parts of the U.S. economy.

Ford, GM, and Fiat Chrysler announced they would close all of their factories due to coronavirus. Ford and GM said production will be suspended until at least March 30.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced they would suspend field operations until April 1 to help slow down the spread of coronavirus. They will continue to provide information on the census on the phone, but will stop in-person visits. Census forms will still arrive at homes across America and you can fill it out online, by phone, or by mail.

The Dow Jones had another bad day, dropping 1,300 points, erasing the gains from yesterday.

Italy, the second-hardest hit country during the coronavirus pandemic, reported 475 new deaths in only one day. There are over 35,000 people infected and almost 3,000 deaths. About 4,000 people have recovered.

Spain has almost 14,000 cases of coronavirus. Germany has over 8,000 while France has over 7,000 cases.

BBC reported that a man in his 40’s, Craig Ruston, is the youngest person in the UK to die after being tested positive for COVID-19. He already had a serious underlying health problem — motor neuron disease, which affect nerves in the brain and spinal cord. His wife said he was given two years to live in 2018 but that he was still fighting to live until he got the coronavirus.

That’s all the updates on coronavirus for today. We’ll have more news tomorrow.

https://www.foxnews.com/.../trump-announces-us-canada...

https://www.nytimes.com/.../world/coronavirus-news.html...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../2020/03/17/checks-virus/

https://www.wxyz.com/.../ford-gm-and-fiat-chrysler-will...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51952712

https://www.bbc.com/.../uk-england-northamptonshire-51941732

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Joe Biden won all three primaries yesterday in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona. His delegate lead over Bernie Sanders is now 1,132 to 817.

I will show you some graphics from the New York Times. The areas in purple represents Biden victories, and the areas in teal represents Bernie victories.

In Florida, Biden won every county and came away with just over a million votes to Bernie’s 400,000 votes. Biden was awarded 136 delegates to Bernie’s 48.

In Illinois, Biden won in 101 out of 102 counties in Illinois and was awarded 93 delegates. Bernie was awarded 59 delegates.

In Arizona, Biden won 13 out of 15 counties. The vote totals was closest race out of the three states, but Biden had a sizable lead. Biden was awarded 37 delegates to Bernie’s 27.

Bernie’s campaign said they are going to “assess the path forward for their campaign” and have conversations with supporters.

Biden spoke on a livestream from his home in Delaware last night. He said his campaign had a very good night and has moved closer to securing the Democratic nomination for president by building a broad coalition that they need to win in November.

Biden then spoke to those who support Bernie by saying that he hears them and he knows what is at stake. He that although he and Bernie might disagree on tactics, he shares a common vision on affordable health care, on reducing income inequality, and fighting climate change.

NBC News explained that in order for Bernie to catch up to Biden, he would have to win the upcoming states by huge margins, and that it would be very difficult to accomplish that.

Axios reported that Bernie’s campaign has suspended ads on Facebook.

There will be no primaries until April 4 because of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In separate but related news, President Trump has officially reached the number of delegates to secure the Republican nomination. There were no real challengers for Trump and now he will wait for the final outcome of the Democratic race.

President Trump tweeted this morning that the DNC will get what they want by defeating Bernie and that Bernie has given up, just like he did last time.

https://www.nbcnews.com/.../biden-opens-commanding...

https://thehill.com/.../488158-biden-makes-direct-appeal...

https://www.usatoday.com/.../bernie-sanders.../2863183001/

https://www.axios.com/bernie-sanders-suspends-facebook...