March 18 coronavirus news

President Trump signed into law a coronavirus relief package that includes provisions for free testing for COVID-19 and paid emergency leave.

The Senate had earlier Wednesday approved the House-passed bill. The move allowed the upper chamber to devote its full attention to passing the next relief package in response to the coronavirus crisis.

According to the White House, the "Families First Coronavirus Response Act" will provide "supplemental appropriations related to the COVID-19 public health emergency, as well as waivers and modifications of Federal nutrition programs, employment-related protections and benefits, health programs and insurance coverage requirements, and related tax credits during the COVID-19 public health emergency."

Australian airline Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar will suspend scheduled international flights from late March until at least the end of May due to the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement posted on its website Thursday, Qantas Group announced that 60% of its domestic flights would also be cut, and two-thirds of its 30,000 employees would be temporarily stood down.

There's the possibility of ad-hoc international flights, the group said in its statement.

Here's the group's statement:

Customers, shareholders, and passengers can read more about how this affects them here.

The US Food and Drug Administration has now authorized nine coronavirus tests for emergency use. 

The maker of one of those tests, Abbott, promised on Wednesday to ship 150,000 laboratory tests “immediately." 

The authorizations are somewhat of a formality. FDA guidance issued earlier this week allows companies to manufacture and ship tests before receiving permission.

Yet the authorizations still offer a stamp of approval to tests, signaling that federal regulators are satisfied with their validation data and believe their benefits outweigh any risks, such as false positives or negatives.

Four other tests were authorized by the FDA this week; Abbott’s test is the fifth, for a total of nine.

 Unlike tests that give results at home or in a doctor’s office, coronavirus tests must be run on specialized equipment in clinical labs.

The Abbott system can process up to 470 tests per day, according to the company, whose test was authorized Tuesday. The Swiss firm Roche, whose test was greenlit last week, says its systems can process up to 960 results in eight hours. 

Such “high-throughput” systems have the potential to dramatically increase testing capacity in the United States. But shortages of the people and tools needed to run the tests – like health care workers and cotton swabs – could still slow testing.

A researcher at University of Washington Medicine has died of coronavirus, according to a tweet from the medical school.

Dr. Stephen Schwartz was a professor of pathology since 1984, according to the department’s biography, with a focus on vascular biology.

Schwartz co-authored dozens of studies on cardiovascular and cancer-related issues, according to a collection of research papers maintained by the National Institutes of Health. He earned his PhD from the University of Washington in 1973.

There are at least 8,525 cases of novel coronavirus in the United States, according to the state and local health agencies, governments and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

According to the CDC, there are 70 cases from repatriated citizens. According to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States through US public health systems, there are 8,455 cases in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and other US territories, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases to 8,525.

In total, 145 people have died. 

Watch:

The US Food and Drug Administration will temporarily postpone all domestic routine surveillance facility inspections due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn announced Wednesday.

It made the move for the health of its staff, state inspectors “and because of industry concerns about visitors," he said.

The agency handles facility inspections for all FDA-regulated products, such as food, animal feed, drugs, biological products, devices and tobacco.

But the FDA will be looking at other ways to complete inspections, such as “evaluating records in lieu of conducting an onsite inspection on an interim basis when travel is not permissible, when appropriate," he said.

The FDA had previously postponed most foreign facility inspections through April. 

Hahn stated that the FDA “will continue to assess and calibrate our approach as needed and we stand ready to resume any postponed inspections as soon as feasible.”  

Hahn also said the FDA directed all eligible employees to begin teleworking this week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to waive this year’s statewide standardized testing for K-12 students, according to a statement from his office. The order is pending federal approval.

More than 6 million students are out of school in California due to closures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The NBA's Brooklyn Nets said Wednesday that the team was prompted to administer a test for COVID-19 after several players and staff had shown symptoms. 

The team also added that they "sourced the tests through a private company and paid for them ourselves because we did not want to impact access to CDC’s public resources. Using the test results, we were able to take immediate precautions and strictly isolate the players who tested positive."

The Nets announced on Tuesday that four players had tested positive for COVID-19, most notably superstar Kevin Durant. 

So far seven NBA players have tested positive for coronavirus. 

Air Canada announced Wednesday that it will gradually suspend the majority of its international and US trans-border flights by March 31.

The move come after the US and Canada decided to close its borders and restrict flights as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline said in a statement.

The airline said it intends to maintain a small number of international and US trans-border destinations from select Canadian cities after April 1.

According to the statement, the airline will also continue serving all provinces and territories of Canada after that date.