NPR News Podcast

Early data suggests that black Americans are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates than other groups. Also, the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will now start taking coronavirus patients, a change from its original mission. And, Wuhan, China, where the disease is thought to have began, has re-opened after a 76-day lockdown.

Wisconsin's in-person primary election is on despite concerns over the risk of the coronavirus and stay-at-home orders across the U.S. Also, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to an intensive care unit due to coronavirus. And, Japan enters a state of emergency as the country braces for a surge in cases.

For the first time in days, New York has seen the daily number of deaths, hospitalizations and intubations as a result of COVID-19 decrease. But is it just a blip? And what does the week ahead look like for the rest of the U.S.? Also, several governors have been critical of the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus. How is the White House responding?

Ventilators — maybe the biggest supply and demand problem of the COVID pandemic. And American businesses are rising to meet the challenge. To avoid the worst case scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic, America will need more ventilators, maybe hundreds of thousands of new ones in the coming months. Across the country companies that normally make things like auto parts are turning on a dime, racing to make ventilator parts. In this bonus episode of NPR's Planet Money podcast, Karen Duffin and Kenny Malone take us up close and inside the scramble to manufacture just one of those hundreds of parts.

The CDC is recommending Americans wear cloth masks for protection when out and about. COVID-19 cases are increasing in Detroit and New Orleans. The Trump administration is tweaking the definition of the Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies.

The U.S. coronavirus curve rises while China's flattens. The pandemic opens a new front in the abortion battle. And, Bloomberg staffers say they were promised jobs through November, some are suing.