Coronavirus pandemic in the US

President Trump announced several efforts by the federal government to help states increase testing capacity.

Trump said the administration will also provide approximately 9 million transport media to transfer swabs to labs as well as expand testing in "the most underserved communities."

"Through our partnership with the private sector, leading pharmacies and retailers are now operating over 240 testing sites across the country — and that's in addition to all the other sites that we've working. Seventy percent of these sites are located in communities with unique vulnerabilities," the President said.

"There will be more than 300 sites by the end of this week and retailers are making plans to open up hundreds and hundreds more locations within the next 30 days," he added.

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President Trump announced today that he approved the $1 billion to fund testing for the country’s “states, territories and tribes."

Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir later clarified the amount that will be distributed to states, which he said is $11 billion.

Trump called the funding a "major investment."

This post has been updated with the latest $11 billion figure from Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir.

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Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, announced Monday that the state has received its first allocation of remdesivir, the first and only drug shown to be effective against the novel coronavirus in a rigorous trial — shortening a patient's hospital stay by about four days.

The Department of Health and Human Services sent an initial shipment of remdesivir for the treatment of hospitalized Covid-19 patients, Ezike said.

The state expects to receive more remdesivir in the future, according to Ezike.

A new study shows that hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by President Trump, does not work against Covid-19 and could cause heart problems.

The study was the largest of its kind and was published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It follows a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine that also showed the drug doesn't fight the virus.

Even before these reports were published, the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health issued warnings about using the drugs for coronavirus patients. 

In the most recent study, researchers at the University at Albany looked at 1,438 patients with coronavirus who were admitted to 25 New York City area hospitals.

After statistical adjustments, the death rate for patients taking hydroxychloroquine was similar to those who did not take the drug. The death rate for those taking hydroxychloroquine plus the antibiotic azithromycin, was also similar.

The patients who took the drug combination were more than twice as likely to suffer cardiac arrest during the course of the study. Heart issues are a known side effect of hydroxychloroquine.

US stocks closed mixed on Monday, with the Dow giving back some of last week’s gains. 

Investors worried about a second wave of coronavirus infections following a spike in South Korea, which limited gains in Monday’s trading.

Here's where the markets closed on Monday: 

Both the S&P and the Nasdaq had started the day in the red but turned higher.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom backs regional modifications to the statewide stay-at-home order, essentially backing Alameda County, which was one of seven jurisdictions that held back on reopening.

Tesla recently filed a lawsuit to resume making cars.

The Tesla factory in Fremont, California, which is in Alameda County, appeared to reopen this morning, following a weekend battle between Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and California Congresswoman Lorena Gonzalez.

Noting that many of the restrictions lifted in California on Friday included manufacturing, Newsom indicated that Tesla can resume operations next week when Alameda County lifts those same restrictions.

“Over the weekend, as it relates to the health and safety of employees and that one particular facility, and the extent that they're moving forward, we will work with the county health officials but again it's county led enforcement," Newsom said.

“In these cases, and to the extent their modifications are being violated, I imagine Alameda County Health Department would be the first to check in with and we'll certainly be doing that as a follow up,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, not to hold anything back and to “let it rip” ahead of tomorrow's Senate Health Committee oversight hearing on the administration’s coronavirus response.

He also said that until now, the country has mostly heard from the members of the coronavirus task force “through the distorted lens of the White House press conference with the President often prevents them from answering fully, interrupts their response, or even contradicts their fact based advice.”  

“This is the kind of hearing we need, not once a week, but several a day,” he said.

Actor Matthew McConaughey discussed his nonpartisan public service campaigns to unite the nation to defeat the coronavirus pandemic with CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

McConaughey has launched a number of PSAs promoting social distancing measures and the use of face masks.

He and his wife have also donated about 80,000 face masks to first responders, according to Keilar. His most recent PSA calls for the nation to unite in order to fight the virus.

McConaughey added that the coronavirus doesn’t “give a damn who you voted for or who you’re going to vote for … we’re not going to going to let science catch up, we’re not going to beat this virus the way that we can, if we’re fighting each other.”

McConaughey said he believes that both Democrats and Republicans can be more responsible “with how they’ve used this virus for their own partisan, political advantage.”

Watch full interview:

As of Friday, at least 74 employees of the New York City Department of Education have died due to complications related to Covid-19, including 30 teachers, according to a spokesperson for the department.

The Department of Education said 70 were school-based employees, including the 30 teachers, 28 paraprofessionals and other food service staffers, administrators, facilities staff, school aides and guidance counselors.

The other four were central office employees.

The NYC Department of Education specified that the count includes an additional three employees from numbers released last week.

“In the course of continued outreach to families, we confirmed that one food service employee originally listed did not, according to their loved ones, pass away due to COVID-19 or related illnesses,” DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said in an email to reporters.

“This individual has been removed from the total count. In this instance, a name was initially reported through other avenues and to be overly cautious and not undercount, we initially added this individual to our total count," the email added.

Note: These deaths are not confirmed by the Department of Health as related to Covid-19, because the DOH is no longer confirming individual cases due to community transmission, according to Barbot.