Wrangling over virus relief persists

MIAMI » The desperate race to corral the coronavirus pandemic took on even greater urgency Monday as a burgeoning economic crisis collided with political turmoil. Even as the latest experimental vaccine appeared to show promise, politicians in Washington seemed far apart in finding a way to bring financial relief to Americans.

As the first federal relief package was poised to come to an end, members of Congress

were trying to come to agreement on another package to ease the financial burden Americans have dealt with as businesses have endured repeated shutterings or pauses since the virus first appeared on the continent.

The political turmoil was playing out as there appeared to be good news on the medical front, with scientists involved in the development of at least one vaccine reporting promising results in an early trial.

Even as Republicans were at odds with Democrats over how much money was enough, top Republican members of Congress also faced pushback from the White House. GOP leaders were expected to meet Monday with President Donald Trump as the White House panned some $25 billion in the GOP’s plan that would be devoted to testing and tracing, said one Republican familiar with the discussions.

There remains a wide gulf between the GOP and Democratic packages, with Democrats passing in the House a $3 trillion package, while the Republican package came in at about $1 trillion.

“We have to end this virus,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Monday on MSNBC.

Pelosi said any attempt by the White House to block testing money “goes beyond ignorance.”

Pelosi’s bill, approved in May, includes $75 billion for testing and tracing to try to get a handle on the virus spread, funnels $100 billion to schools to safely reopen and calls for $1 trillion for cash-strapped states to pay essential workers and prevent layoffs. The measure would give cash stipends to Americans, and bolster rental and mortgage and other safety net protections.

In the two months since Pelosi’s bill passed, the U.S. has had 50,000 more deaths and 2 million more infections.

“If we don’t invest the money now, it will be much worse,” Pelosi said.

The political stakes were high for all sides before the November election, especially with the nation having registered more coronavirus infections and deaths than any other country. With 17 straight weeks of unemployment claims topping 1 million, many households were facing a cash crunch and losing employer-backed health insurance coverage.

The number of cases was spiking in spots throughout the United States, stressing not just the economy and Americans’ psyche but also its medical system.

In California, malls in San Francisco were ordered closed about a month after they were allowed to reopen.

Four months after the San Francisco Bay Area became the first place in the nation to issue broad stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, only one Bay Area county is not on the state governor’s watch list for areas with rising infection and hospitalization rates.

In Chicago, the mayor imposed new restrictions on bars, gyms and personal services such as facials as health officials said the city again topped 200 daily cases on average. City officials attributed the rise primarily to young people going to bars and restaurants and beaches along Lake Michigan.

In Florida, where nearly 9,500 people were hospitalized as of Monday, just 18% of its ICU units were available.

Potions in Motions, a catering company in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, would ordinarily be in high gear for summer weddings, graduations and corporate events, averaging 25 to 35 a week at their peak and serving 2,000 to 3,000 people.

But this summer, with South Florida’s three counties imposing restrictions on group gatherings, they’re down to “micro-events,” averaging two to five a week with eight to 15 people. They’ve had to cut most of their staff; at peak season, they have 65, but now are down to six.