US Health Officials to Testify About White House Coronavirus Response

Top U.S. public health officials are set to go before a congressional panel Tuesday as parts of the country grapple with a surge in new confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Among those scheduled to speak to lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the Trump administration’s response to the crisis are Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Stephen Hahn, and Adm. Brett Giroir, head of the U.S. Public Health Service. Fauci is among the health experts saying people should not be focused on a second wave of the virus in the United States because the country has not yet emerged from its first wave. Many states are in the process of loosening restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the virus.   Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Monday that re-imposing restrictions would only be done as a last resort, while saying the virus was spreading at an “unacceptable rate” and declining to impose an order to mandate the use of masks in public.  Texas has set daily records for new infections for nearly two weeks as its hospitalization rates climbed. Neighboring Louisiana surpassed 3,000 deaths due to COVID-19, and with a rise in cases there as well Governor John Bel Edwards said he would keep in place the current limitations that were set to expire Friday.FILE – A New Orleans police car is seen on patrol on Bourbon Street amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 25, 2020.Hospitalization rates have also surged in Georgia, while the number of confirmed cases is rising in more than a dozen states. The country now has more than 120,000 deaths and 2.3 million cases. The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the coronavirus pandemic is being politicized and that a lack of global leadership to fight the virus is a bigger threat than the virus itself.        “The world is in desperate need of national unity and global solidarity. The politicization of the pandemic has exacerbated it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday during a videoconference for the Dubai-based World Government Summit.       “The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself. It’s the lack of global solidarity and global leadership,” Tedros added.        Tedros did not say who he thought was politicizing the pandemic.       U.S. President Donald Trump has criticized the WHO for its response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying it acted too slowly and with too much praise for China. He has threatened to end all U.S. funding for the organization.    Global infections surpassed 9 million on Monday. Tedros noted that it took over three months for the world to see 1 million virus infections, but the last 1 million cases have come in just eight days.         Two of the spots where cases have been surging are Brazil and India.    Brazil’s health ministry said Monday the country recorded 21,432 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, along with 654 new deaths.      India also reported Monday a record number of cases and 400 new deaths in the past 24 hours.      Saudi Arabia said this year’s pilgrimage to Islam’s holy sites, including Mecca, will not be canceled but only “very limited numbers” of people will be allowed at the sites. 
…