Spiegel Stuff: Overnight Healthcare: Senate passes $484B coronavirus relief package | Georgia faces pressure to reconsider its reopening | CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus might be 'more difficult'

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Welcome to Tuesday’s Overnight Health Care.

There are more than 800,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., and the death toll is rapidly approaching 45,000.

Meanwhile, the Senate passed a $484 billion interim coronavirus relief package, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is facing backlash after announcing some businesses including bowling alleys and hair salons would be allowed to open Friday.

Let’s start with the Senate:

Senate passes $484B coronavirus relief package

There’s a deal! And it passed the Senate.

The price tag for the “interim” legislation is still a hefty $484 billion. How that breaks down:

$310 billion for small business relief, including $60 billion specifically for community banks and smaller lenders.
$75 billion for hospitals
$25 billion for testing
$60 billion for emergency disaster loans and grants

Highlighting the need: Forty-three percent of respondents to a Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday said they had either had their wages cut or lost their job due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The backstory: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Democrats initially tried to pass their own dueling proposals nearly two weeks ago, but both were blocked. McConnell was offering a clean additional $250 billion for the small business aid program, while Democrats wanted to add in an additional $100 billion for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments and a boost in food stamp assistance.

McConnell took a victory lap on Tuesday, arguing that Democrats had dropped “a number of their unrelated demands” during the negotiations.

Democrats noted they successfully added money for hospitals, testing, and other priorities.

Read more here.

Georgia faces pressure to reconsider its reopening

Georgia is coming under pressure to reconsider its plans to begin allowing some businesses to open at the end of the week, even as the state has seen an uptick in coronavirus cases.

GOP senators, former Trump administration officials, health experts, Georgia mayors and Democrats are expressing outrage and concern, saying Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, is risking an explosion of new coronavirus cases that could lead to a second economic shutdown for the state.

Intra-GOP criticism: Sen. Lindsay Graham (R), who hails from bordering South Carolina, said Tuesday that he’s worried Georgia is “moving too fast too soon.”

“We respect Georgia’s right to determine its own fate,” Graham tweeted. “But we are all in this together. What happens in Georgia will impact us in South Carolina.”

Missouri becomes first state to sue China over coronavirus response

Massachusetts extends school closures through end of school year

Illinois governor: Trump encouraging coronavirus protests is 'fomenting some violence'

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is not a fan of President Trump’s apparent endorsement of public protests against social distancing measures, saying Tuesday that the president is “fomenting some violence.”

“I’m very disappointed with the rhetoric and messaging coming from the president,” Pritzker said in a livestream with The Washington Post, saying that officials in Illinois have been collaborating across party lines during the coronavirus pandemic.

"He’s fomenting protests and I hate to say, that is fomenting some violence, and I’m very concerned about what it might mean for the country if he keeps doing things like that.”

President Trump has said states will make their own decisions about when they're ready to open up their economies, but he and members of his administration have questioned and criticized some states — blue states, mostly — that are not ready to move as quickly.

Read more here.

NYC to create its own stockpile of medical supplies: 'It's sobering as all hell'

New York City will create its own stockpile of medical supplies after Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said Tuesday that the city “can’t depend on the federal government.”

De Blasio announced the development of the local stockpile at his Tuesday press conference, saying it will include surgical gowns, test kits and ventilators. The city will still purchase necessary medical supplies from outside vendors.

States and cities have been competing with each other and the federal government to purchase needed medical supplies, and in some instances the federal government has gone so far as to seize supplies intended for somewhere else.

CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus might be 'more difficult'

A potential second wave of the novel coronavirus late in the year would likely be more deadly, as it would overlap with flu season, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Robert Redfield told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield told the Post. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”

Redfield said two coinciding respiratory outbreaks would strain the nation’s health care system even further than the current pandemic, which has been marked by shortages of ventilators, test kits and personal protective equipment.

Americans can make such a scenario less likely, he said, by keeping up to date on flu vaccinations, which he said “may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus.”