The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved $484 billion in fresh relief for the U.S. economy and hospitals hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, sending the measure to the House of Representatives for final passage later this week.

The bipartisan bill would replenish funds for emergency small business lending programs and shore up national coronavirus testing as a stopgap ahead of another round of major relief legislation.

• The bill includes an additional $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, with $60 billion of that money reserved for smaller businesses without existing banking relationships.
• Another $60 billion ($50 billion in loans and $10 billion in grants) is also set aside for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund, which is administered directly by the Small Business Administration rather than banks. Farms and other agricultural programs are now eligible for those funds.
• The bill will also provide another $75 billion for cash-strapped hospitals and healthcare providers to help them cover the massive costs associated with responding to the virus. 
• The bill allocates $25 billion for coronavirus testing—a major sticking point for both Democrats and Republicans during late-night negotiations on Monday. $11 billion of that money is earmarked for states and local governments to expand their testing capacity.
• Under the terms of the legislation, the federal government is required to develop a “strategic plan related to providing assistance to states for testing and increasing testing capacity.” State and local governments must also submit their testing plans for review.

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2020/04/21/senate-passes-484-billion-interim-relief-package-heres-whats-in-it-and-whats-missing/#5f1656cc3e34

• Georgia, South Carolina moves come days after Trump guidelines
• Questions remain about whether those states meet benchmarks

Southern Republican governors who were among the last to institute shelter-at-home orders are now pushing to become the first to lift them. In Georgia, for example, the state will begin opening up this week with:

• Gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools and massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24, Kemp said, provided workers wear masks and gloves, stay six feet away from each other and are screened for symptoms.
• Dine-in options at restaurants, private social clubs and theaters will be able to reopen on April 27 “subject to specific social distancing and sanitation mandates,” which will be released in the coming days, Kemp said.
• Bars, nightclubs, amusement parks and live performance venues will remain closed.

“In the same way that we carefully closed businesses and urged operations to end to mitigate the virus’ spread, today, we are announcing plans to incrementally – and safely – reopen sectors of our economy,” Governor Kemp said on Monday.

The announcements came Monday afternoon after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp spent the weekend talking to his fellow Republican governors in the South about how best to restart their economies in response to guidelines issued last week by the White House.

Coming just four days after President Donald Trump issued the guidelines, the announcements raised questions about whether the states were moving too quickly.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. State Department immunologist and one of Trump’s top medical advisers, said Monday evening that it was up to governors to determine whether they are meeting the criteria set by the White House last Thursday.

Recommendations, not Requirements

Public-health experts say all of these conditions should be met before a state considers reopening.

With the virus still spreading across the country, states would be hard-pressed to meet all of these criteria. But because they are only recommendations, not requirements, states can proceed with reopening their economies.

In Georgia, the public health department reports a peak of 811 confirmed cases on April 6. Cases show a downward trajectory since then, though April 14 came close to the peak with 779 confirmed cases. A decrease of 32 cases is still a decrease, but not one which would necessarily leave public-health experts feeling confident in a state’s ability to reopen.

In any case, the guidelines are merely suggestions. If the states decline to follow them, they won’t be held liable by the federal government.

The swift reopening in Georgia is premature, said Harry Heiman, an associate professor at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health.

“On the one hand,” Heiman said, Kemp and his team “seem to understand the elements that need to be in place. On the other hand, those elements don’t seem to be in place.”

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-21/southern-states-push-to-reopen-with-economic-pressure-rising

1. https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-04-20/gov-kemp-updates-georgians-covid-19
2. https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report
3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/04/20/georgia-will-reopen-gyms-hair-salons-and-bowling-alleys-as-early-as-friday/#1699cbdb2ce7

Take it from a legend

“Markets go up and markets go down, it is how you react that will make the difference over the long term.”

“No one can predict with certainty what will happen in the markets in the short-term future…absolutely no one.”

However, what we do know for sure is that markets will go back up and exceed their previous highs over the long-term (5 to 10 years). We just do not know exactly when or how many years or decades it might take.

But, it is an historical fact that long-term markets go up despite short-term market drops and sell offs. As a result, market corrections and bear markets create excellent stock buying opportunities for patient and smart investors.

While psychology, emotions and sentiment work against investors in down markets and panic stock sell offs in the short-term, it is important to try to ‘think’ instead of ‘reacting on emotion’. Successful investing has been founded on sound investing principles and strategies. Poor investment strategies have resulted from reacting on emotion.

We know that markets tend to go up and to go down, but over the long-term markets increase. Understandably, when markets go down, the odds are in your favor to make successful investments over the long-term if you buy the stocks of companies with strong balance sheets whom stock price has been unfairly beaten down during market corrections and Bear markets.

Investing legend Warren Buffett has earned the nickname “The Oracle of Omaha” because of his incredible and long lasting investment success. And, Buffett has lived through a lot of different markets in his day.

Here are 20 of Warren Buffett’s best quotes for you and some things to contemplate about each one. Click through the gallery at the link below:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/20-tips-from-warren-buffett-on-weathering-a-market-downturn/ss-BB12hUJq#image=1

We asked the experts to answer questions about all the places coronavirus lurks (or doesn’t). You’ll feel better after reading this.

When we asked readers to send their questions about coronavirus, a common theme emerged: Many people are fearful about tracking the virus into their homes on their clothes, their shoes, the mail and even the newspaper.

We reached out to infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists and microbiologists to answer reader questions about the risks of coming into contact with the virus during essential trips outside and from deliveries. While we still need to take precautions, their answers were reassuring.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/well/live/coronavirus-contagion-spead-clothes-shoes-hair-newspaper-packages-mail-infectious.html

1. https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-we-know-about-the-coronavirus-11579716128

Under the new White House guidelines, governors will determine a timeline for reopening their states. “Every state is very different,” President Trump said. “If they need to remain closed, we will allow them to do that.” The new guidelines come as lawmakers and business leaders press the administration to expand virus testing.

While pushing to reopen the economy, Mr. Trump acknowledged the continued risk and said Americans should continue to practice “vigorous” hygiene practices, including social-distancing and, when possible, teleworking.

Mr. Trump expressed optimism that as many as 29 states would be ready to open their economies “relatively soon,” though no specifics were provided. But, testing would need to expand in those states and across the country.

The U.S. has conducted more than 3 million tests for COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak, according to the WSJ. Experts say the level of testing would need to increase to millions of tests a week before Americans can return to work in large numbers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down large segments of the U.S. economy and has raised the total number of Americans who sought unemployment benefits for the month to 22 million.

Three-phase process encourages states to make data-based decisions to reopen their state economies

The White House guidelines’ approach are based on county and state-specific conditions. The new guidelines, formally known as ‘Opening Up America Again‘, outline a three-phase process for opening up the country based on the scope of the outbreak in individual states. The guidelines say states should move to the first phase of reopening after exhibiting a downward trend of documented cases or positive tests over a two-week period.

In the first phase, movie theaters, restaurants, sports venues, places of worship, gyms and other venues could open with strict social distancing guidelines in place. The plan recommends that vulnerable people stay at home during the first phase, and prohibits visits to nursing homes and hospitals. Some people could return to work in phases, although telework would still be encouraged.

In the second phase, nonessential travel could resume and bars could open with some restrictions. Schools and youth activities could reopen.

For phase three, there would be no restrictions on workplaces and vulnerable people could resume social interactions, but should seek to follow social distancing. Visits to hospitals and nursing homes could resume.

Sources:

1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Guidelines-for-Opening-Up-America-Again.pdf
2. https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-surges-in-some-asian-countries-that-had-been-lightly-hit-11587031743
3. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-set-to-unveil-guidelines-for-lifting-coronavirus-restrictions-11587050541

Gilead Sciences experimental drug is reportedly showing promise for treatment of the coronavirus.

The University of Chicago Medicine Hospital reports that patients with COVID-19 treated with Gilead Sciences’ experimental antiviral drug, Remdesivir, in a clinical trial showed “rapid recovery in fever and respiratory symptoms with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week”, medical site STAT reported.

The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with COVID-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of Remdesivir. 

“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital. She added: “Most of our patients are severe and most of them are leaving at six days, so that tells us duration of therapy doesn’t have to be 10 days. We have very few that went out to 10 days, maybe three,” she said.

Patients rush to join studies of remdesivir drug

But Gilead Sciences urged caution on drawing conclusions from the report. Gilead said the totality of the data from the trial needed to be analyzed, and expects to report results from a study in severe COVID-19 patients at the end of the month, and data from other trials in May.

“The entire world has been waiting for results from Gilead’s clinical trials, and positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies,” STAT reported. “If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease.”

Currently, there is no FDA approved treatments or vaccines for the coronavirus.

REMDESIVIR IS AN INVESTIGATIONAL PRODUCT AND HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED ANYWHERE GLOBALLY. THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF REMDESIVIR FOR ANY USE HAVE NOT BEEN DETERMINED.

References:

1. https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/early-peek-at-data-on-gilead-coronavirus-drug-suggests-patients-are-responding-to-treatment/
2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gilead-sciences-stocks-idUSKBN21Z25V
3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/17/remdesivir-coronavirus-drug-gilead-sciences-covid-19-treatment/5150793002/