Shelter In Place Blog: Coronavirus Updates: Stimulus deal talks stall

Hopes for quick passage of a bipartisan stimulus bill faded after Democratic leaders balked at a $1.8 trillion GOP plan, complaining that it focuses too much on businesses at the expense of unemployed workers. Both parties and the White House have been negotiating a massive aid package as the coronavirus outbreak threatens a global recession. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that "we will be introducing our own bill" even as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moves forward with his own plan.
Thousands of Americans are stranded abroad as global infections rise by tens of thousands of cases each day, now exceeding 300,000, according to Johns Hopkins University's tracker.
Italy remains the hardest hit country, reporting another 650 deaths in one day, for a total of nearly 5,500, with morgues and hospitals overwhelmed despite a nationwide lockdown implemented more than a week ago. A top World Health Organization official warned Sunday that lockdowns are ineffective without programs to identify and isolate the sick and anyone they have contacted, otherwise when they're lifted, "the danger is the disease will jump back up."
American officials fear that Italy's catastrophe could be a portent of what is to come in New York and other U.S. states facing heavy infection rates and shortages of life-saving equipment and protective gear for medical workers.
U.S. infections and deaths both jumped sharply in the past day, to nearly 31,000 confirmed cases including 390 fatalities. Ohio and Louisiana issued statewide stay-at-home orders, joining California, Illinois and New York in implementing measures that have effectively quarantined more than one in five Americans.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) became the first senator to test positive and is self-quarantining. Vice President Pence and his wife tested negative for the coronavirus after a worker in his office caught it.
Volunteers with sewing machines are making homemade surgical masks for one New York hospital system that has run short, and President Trump suggested that health-care workers try to sanitize disposable masks. The federal government ordered 500 million new masks earlier this month, but as of Sunday morning, the chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency could not say when hospitals would receive them.
The disease has begun to show up in vulnerable populations such as inmates and homeless communities, where experts fear it will spread especially quickly.

Help others

The news has been dire lately, and we're all looking for ways to keep our hearts and minds sound, as well as our bodies. Helping others is a great way to do that.
The American Red Cross badly needs blood donations from those able to give. Meanwhile, groups including the CDC Foundation, Meals on Wheels and a nonprofit organization supporting infected artists need support.
We've built a guide for ways you can help in your community and nationwide during the outbreak. You can also submit suggestions for other ways to support those who need it.

Help yourself

Don't forget to care for yourself! Being quarantined during such stressful times can make us feel helpless, but there are small things you can do at home to improve your state of mind.
Read "The completely correct guide to vacationing at home" for tips to make semi-isolation feel more like a holiday — from aromatherapy and ambient soundtracks to simply letting yourself sleep in a bit. You can even try simulating a five-star hotel experience inside your apartment.
If you're feeling a little useless lately, read "12 productive things you can do to feel better about being stuck at home" for suggestions on overlooked tasks that could probably use your attention.

Live updates

Track the spread of the outbreak in the United States and abroad with our updating map.

Post reporters around the world are publishing live dispatches 24 hours a day.

Follow live updates about the cases and impact on the D.C. area.

Check and add to our list of U.S. closings and postponements.

Your questions, answered ... the 'rumor mill' edition

Let's take a look at questions that have been showing up a lot in our inboxes in various forms, not to mention all over social media:
"Does it help to build up your immune systems by taking iodine and colloidal silver?"
and,
"Any truth to the rumor that this was a deadly weapon that the Chinese government was working on to unleash on its enemies, namely the United States?"
The short answer to both is no, there is absolutely no evidence of that.
Unfortunately, various strains of misinformation have been spreading in tandem with the coronavirus. Silver has been peddled as a cure-all for years, and lately by televangelist Jim Bakker as a coronavirus antidote. Other bogus covid-19 treatments include garlic soup, zinc, drinking bleach, dousing yourself in alcohol and blasting a hairdryer into your nostrils.
Here is an easy, if somewhat dispiriting, way to keep track of which cures are fake: all of them.
"Anything you read about curing the virus will be false," The Post wrote in a recent article. "There is no specific medicine recommended to prevent, treat or cure covid-19." Avoid contact with others as much as possible, wash your hands properly and consult a doctor before trying any advice you read on the Internet or hear from a friend. We recommend the World Health Organization's coronavirus myth buster page.
We also know of no evidence that the virus was engineered, despite rumors to the contrary. The best research we know of suggests that it originated in bats or another animal and mutated to infect humans, similar to many other viral outbreaks.
These sorts of conspiracy theories have spread by the millions on social media, and a State Department report suggested that some of them are being spread maliciously and intentionally to sow fear and discord. Don't fall for it.