The Rundown: COVID-19 Deaths Pass 40,000 In U-S

The number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus passed 40,000 on Sunday amid more than 755,000 cases, according to the count being kept by Johns Hopkins University. That milestone was reached as Harvard researchers warned that nationwide testing must increase to at least 500,000 people per day from the current 150,000 per day in order for the economy to reopen and be able to stay that way without spikes in cases forcing quarantine orders again. The U.S. currently doesn't have that testing capacity needed for reopening, as governors have repeatedly called on the federal government for more tests and for help with getting supplies, like swabs, to carry them out. President Trump said Sunday he'll use the Defense Production Act to compel an unnamed company to produce 20 million more testing swabs every month

Trump said Sunday that the administration and Congress are near an agreement on another aid package that will provide more funding for the Payment Protection Program loan program for small businesses that already ran out of its initial $250 million as it was swamped by applications. The new package would provide up to $300 billion for the program, and also providing funding for hospitals dealing with the pandemic and for coronavirus testing. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in the day he believed a deal could be reached by late Sunday or early Monday.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that more than a dozen U.S. experts were working at the World Health Organization and giving the Trump administration information in December as the coronavirus spread in China. Trump last week said he was suspending U.S. funding for the WHO amid the pandemic, accusing it of mismanaging the response to the virus, covering up information to shield China, and failing to, quote, "share information in a timely and transparent fashion." But the Post said Trump administration officials helped guide WHO policy and worked to make sure the U.S. was informed of developments as soon as the international health organization learned about them. The WHO has faced wider questions and criticism over whether it waited too long to declare a global emergency and offered too much praise for China’s response.

In other developments:

• Nearly 20 Percent of Deaths Associated with Nursing Homes: At least 7,000 people, or nearly 20 percent, of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus were associated with nursing homes, according to the New York Times, and experts believe the likely total is higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 400 of the long-term care facilities across the U.S. have coronavirus infections, but NBC reports estimate it's almost 2,500 of them in 36 states, while the Times says it's at least 4,100. The coronavirus is more deadly in older people, especially those with underlying health conditions, and it's able to spread quickly in places like nursing homes because staffers go from room to room to help residents.

• N.Y. to Begin 'Aggressive' Antibody Testing: Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that "aggressive" coronavirus antibody testing will begin in New York this week after the Food and Drug Administration approved a test developed in the state. Antibody tests are meant to show if somebody was infected with the virus and developed antibodies to it. Cuomo said, "[W]e’re going to be rolling it out to do the largest survey of any state populated." Cuomo has repeatedly emphasized the importance of testing as a step toward reopening. The governor also said the daily number of deaths and hospitalizations continue to go down, and the state that's been the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic is, quote, "on the other side of the plateau," but he emphasized they can't ease off on containment measures yet, saying it could quickly go back up again.

➤16 KILLED IN NOVA SCOTIA SHOOTING RAMPAGE, GUNMAN DEAD: Sixteen people were killed in a shooting rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday (April 19th) by a gunman who disguised himself at one point as a police officer. The suspect, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, is dead. The bodies of several people were found in and outside a home in the rural town of Portapique, where Wortman is believed to have lived part-time, in what police said was the first scene of violence. Bodies were found at other locations, including that of a police officer, with authorities believing that while Wortman may have targeted his first victims, he then began killing others at random. They did not say what the initial motive was. Several homes in the area were also set on fire. Police first said they arrested Wortman at a gas station outside Halifax, but later said he was dead. While they did say there'd been an exchange of gunfire between him and police at one point, they didn't disclose how he'd died. The shooting is the deadliest such attack in Canada's history.

➤TEXAS MAN WHO KILLED OFFICER, WOUNDED TWO, WAS WAITING TO AMBUSH THEM: Officials in San Marcos, Texas, said Sunday that a man who killed one police officer and wounded two others a day earlier before killing himself was wearing body armor and waiting to ambush the officers when they arrived at his home in response to a domestic violence call. Killed was 31-year-old Officer Justin Putnam, and the two other officers are in critical but stable condition. Interim police chief Bob Klett identified the suspect as 45-year-old Alfredo Perez de la Cruz, but said they were working to confirm his identity because he apparently went by different names. The officers had responded to a 911 call about a man who'd hit his wife and was threatening other family members who were there. None of the family members other than the suspect were seriously hurt.

➤BOSTON GLOBE RUNS 16-PAGES OF OBITS: With coronavirus cases surging in Massachusetts, the Boston Sunday Globe offered a stark reminder of the death toll that COVID-19 is taking on the state, with the paper running 16 pages worth of death notices in the print edition.

➤NICK CORDERO HAS LEG AMPUTATED: Nick Cordero had his right leg amputated as he continues to fight coronavirus, his wife Amanda Kloots shared. The 41-year-old is on a ventilator and needs the surgery to fix a blood flow problem. “We got some difficult news yesterday. Basically we’ve had issues in his right leg with clotting and getting blood down to his toes and it just isn’t happening with surgery and everything. So they had him on blood thinners for the clotting,” Kloots said. The Tony-award nominee has been sedated for 18 days in the ICU at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California.