INFORMS Open Forum

Good evening,

Please find today's Daily COVID-19 Update for April 23rd. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 

Thank you,

Jeff Cohen


INFORMS Members In The News

• What is the US' single greatest weakness in regard to pandemic preparedness? (Healio)

Member: Pinar Keskinocak

• CMU Dashboard Will Help Inform State Decision-Makers During Pandemic (Carnegie Mellon University)

Member: Ramayya Krishnan

• Two weeks after election, COVID-19 cases have not spiked in Wisconsin but experts urge caution about conclusions (Milwuakee Journal Sentinel)

Member: Oguzhan Alagoz

• Here's how the coronavirus could change supply chains (Share America)

Member: David Simchi-Levi

• Pandemics and exponential growth (Significance Magazine)

Member: James Cochran

• U.S. Food Supply Chain Is Strained as Virus Spreads (New York Times)

Member: Karan Girotra

• Why coronavirus probably won't force American grocers to run out of food (CNBC)

Member: Karan Girotra

• Concern about the food supply in light of panic buying (CNBC)

Member: Karan Girotra

• At Safeway's huge Tracy warehouse, 51 workers have coronavirus and one is dead (San Francisco Chronicle)

Member: Karan Girotra

• Oliver Wyman launches COVID-19 Pandemic Navigator

Webinar Alert: On April 29th Dimitris Bertsimas (MIT, Cambridge) will present the ongoing  work of his group of 20+ PhD and Master students and colleagues at MIT on a variety of aspects of COVID-19 as part of a new webinar series "Analytics for a Better World Webinars (ABW-W)". Visit https://bit.ly/3bnEBug for more information.

U.S. Federal Policy Update 

• This evening, the House of Representatives officially passed the much-anticipated $484 billion interim coronavirus relief package – the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (H.R. 266) – which the Senate had already passed unanimously on Tuesday. The House passed the measure by a roll call vote of 388-5, with Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Ken Buck (R-CO), Jody Hice (R-GA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voting against the bill. This package includes: $310 billion in additional lending authority for the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, $60 billion for small business disaster loans and grants, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for testing. The bill will now proceed to President Trump's desk, where he is expected to swiftly sign it into law. 
• The House also voted to create a new 12-member committee tasked with overseeing the Trump administration's distribution of $2 trillion in relief funds from the CARES Act. The vote passed on a party-line vote of 212-182, with no Republicans voting to create the oversight panel. 
• The Internal Revenue Service announced that tax relief is officially "now available to individuals and businesses affected by travel disruptions because of the COVID-19 pandemic."

 

Global Response

• Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang announced that China will be committing $30 million to the World Health Organization. 
• United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres released an op-ed issuing a call to action for the human rights community – stating that beyond just being a human rights crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic is "an economic crisis, a social crisis, and a human crisis that is fast becoming a human rights crisis."
• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the country's nationwide lockdown will end on April 30^th, after which they will begin easing more of their restrictions.
• Indonesia's Transportation Ministry Spokeswoman Adita Irawati stated that they are implementing a ban on all air travel until April 1^st.
• The Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the Russian government has not established a concrete end date for its nationwide lockdown.

 

State Update 

• Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management encouraging "the administration to help ensure the safety of the federal workforce and our residents as we work together to fight this pandemic," urging them to maintain coronavirus telework policies.
• North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced that the state would be extending their stay-at-home order until May 8^th. 
• Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the state's stay-at-home order would be modified and extended through May 30^th, but elective surgeries in the state would be allowed to resume starting on May 1^st. 
• Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that some businesses in the state would be permitted to reopen starting on April 27^th, if they provide a COVID-19 preparedness plan of all the measures they're taking to respond to the pandemic.
• Idaho Governor Brad Little said that if they are able to achieve certain benchmarks, the state will start easing restrictions – starting with certain businesses being able to open starting on May 1^st.
• Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced that the state's schools would be closed and participating in distance learning for the remainder of the school year.
• Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards spoke against the suggestion made earlier this week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that states should be declaring bankruptcy rather than receiving federal aid. Governor Edwards stated during his briefing this afternoon that "it would just be horrendous for states to have to declare bankruptcy," and "the much more responsible path forward" would be the bipartisan proposal from Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), which suggests appropriating $500 billion in stimulus funding to states.

 

Economic Update (as of close of the markets) 

• U.S. stocks went back and forth today, closing with marginal changes for all three major indices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.2%, while the S&P 500 fell by 0.05% and the Nasdaq Composite by .01%.
• Unemployment data was released by the Labor Department this morning, estimating that 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment assistance last week. 

 

Latest Impact Data 

• In the United States: Over 877,489 cases and 49,605 deaths in 50 states, 4 territories, and Washington, D.C.
• Worldwide: Over 2,682,225 cases and 187,330 deaths in at least 204 countries and territories.

 

In the News 

• House Ratifies $484 Billion in Aid for Pandemic Relief (Wall Street Journal)
• Layoffs wreck the states that lifted Trump to the White House (Politico)
• McConnell sparks bipartisan backlash with state bankruptcy remarks (The Hill)
• Millions of Americans join unemployment line as coronavirus savages economy (Reuters)

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Jeffrey M. Cohen, MBA
Director, Public Affairs & Marketing
INFORMS
jeff.cohen@informs.org
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