WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and the White House coronavirus (COVID-19) task force held the daily briefing Thursday afternoon.
The White House task force holds a press conference each day to provide an update on the country’s response to COVID-19.
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Watch the briefing below (or click here):
Read an update from the Associated Press below:
— After two months and more than 10,000 deaths that have made the nation’s nursing homes some of the most terrifying places to be during the coronavirus crisis, most of them still don’t have access to enough tests to help control outbreaks among their frail, elderly residents. Neither the federal government nor the leader in nursing home deaths, New York, has mandated testing for all residents and staff.
__The coronavirus pandemic is cutting off the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims from their cherished Ramadan traditions as health officials battle to ward off new infections during Islam’s holiest month. Ramadan, a month of daytime fasting, overnight festivity and communal prayer and giving, begins with the new moon this week.
— Heather Espinal is one of 1,900 Veterans Affairs health care workers who have become sick with the coronavirus, according to agency documents obtained by The Associated Press. Twenty have died. Another 3,600 of the 300,000-plus VA health care employees are quarantined and unable to work because they have been exposed to the virus, according to VA figures.
— Daily reports of giant meat-processing plants closing because workers tested positive for the coronavirus have called into question whether slaughterhouses can remain virus-free. According to experts, the answer may be no.
__ The oldest brother of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Donald Reed Herring, has died from the coronavirus, the Massachusetts senator said. The former Democratic presidential candidate said her brother, who spent his career in the military, died Tuesday night.