“On Jan. 22, weeks before the crisis sent the government scrambling for masks, Texas manufacturer Prestige Ameritech offered to restart four mothballed production lines.

Federal officials did not take the company up on it.

....
On April 7, FEMA awarded Prestige a $9.5 million contract to provide a million N95 masks a month for one year, an order the company could fulfill without activating its dormant manufacturing lines. For the masks, Prestige charged the government 79 cents a piece.”

A Howard County family is desperate for help, after they lost three loved ones to the coronavirus in the last three weeks.

The Trump administration shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging coronavirus outbreak.

MedStar Health set up a drive-thru coronavirus testing site in Bethesda on Friday.

The site is at the Pauline Betz Addie Tennis Center at 7801 Democracy Blvd. in Bethesda.

Shearer said she’s provided receipts for American-made, name-brand purchases — sealed boxes of DuPont and Medline, all FDA approved.
An emergency medical technician in Queens, who also asked not to be named, said he was shocked. “It doesn’t make any sense to me why anyone would turn away free PPE.”
Benjamin said he’s heard from employees that “if there’s any hesitation from the hospitals, it’s because they don’t want to publicly look like they can’t provide for their staff.”

“If a state has not had a decrease in cases, the White House said it could still reopen if its share of positive coronavirus tests was lower than it was 14 days before. These states have a higher average share of positive test results than two weeks prior.”

Hogan announced that 20 Maryland companies will help make personal protective equipment (PPE) as part of a grant system that the state will be running. More than 200 companies applied for the grant program.

Through the Maryland COVID-19 Emergency Relief Manufacturing Fund administered by the Maryland Department of Commerce, companies are receiving grants of up to $100,000 to manufacture everything ranging from face shields, gowns, N-95 masks, and even respirator parts to battery packs for ventilators.

Advocates for immigrants and African Americans say more testing, economic support, and worker protection must be in place before it is safe to reopen businesses, as Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says he expects to do so as early as May 15. One local government leader sided with Latino and black activists who say they already suffer the brunt of COVID-19 infections, and will further struggle should the state ease pandemic restrictions.

Howard University Community Health Center offers to DC residents free coronavirus testings and no referral or symptoms required in Ward 7.

An internal Trump administration report expects about 200,000 daily cases by June. The White House bars coronavirus task force officials from testifying to Congress without approval.

“The market value of all donations the Nailed It team has collected in the last month add up to about $30 million, and these gifts are linked to Vietnamese American communities from almost every state in the country.”