Oil prices nosedive, 28,000 missing COVID-19 deaths, and other morning headlines

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: As COVID-19 fears grew, public health officials and sports execs weighed health risks —and debated a PR message — but let 33,000 fans into a Major League Soccer game in Seattle.

NEWS: A MultiCare surgeon who survived COVID-19 is proud of Washington state's coronavirus response.

NEWS: Polluters can dump more toxins into Washington state waters after the Environmental Protection Agency rolled back the state's water quality standards last week.


COVID-19

U.S. death toll
Roughly 37,000 people have died from COVID-19 across the United States, while over 600 people have died in Washington state alone. That figure is increasing by roughly 2,000 every day. (New York Times)

Missing deaths
But that death toll is likely an undercount. An estimated 28,000 more people worldwide died of COVID-19 in the last month but weren't included in official counts because they died outside of hospitals. (New York Times)

The COVID brigade
Tracking the coronavirus with contact tracing — a strategy that experts think is a vital prerequisite to reopening the economy — may require close to 300,000 highly trained workers nationwide. But that workforce doesn't exist. (Politico)

Desiring normalcy
Despite signs that severe outbreaks are just beginning to emerge in parts of the country, officials in states like Georgia, Ohio, and South Carolina are moving to open their economies. (New York Times)


IN OTHER NEWS...

Nobody wants oil
The price of oil nosedived on Monday into the negative, signaling that global demand for oil has dried up amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry is quickly running out of places to store excess oil. (New York Times)

Suspending immigration
President Donald Trump announced on Twitter last night that he plans to "temporarily suspend immigration into the United States" but provided few details. (New York Times)

Rental tensions
Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee extended his moratorium on evictions to June 4 and broadly expanded it. But both landlords and tenant advocates are concerned with ambiguity in the order's language. (Spokesman-Review)

A hill to die on
A woman in Rathdrum, Idaho, who was cited by police for violating the governor's stay-home order after holding a yard sale in her front yard, isn't backing down. (Coeur d'Alene Press)