Federal officials are working on ways to rate counties by their risk of coronavirus transmission, President Donald Trump said Thursday. He told the nation’s governors in a letter that he hopes the guidelines will help them make “decisions about maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other measures they have put in place.”

In Washington state, a hospital sent 140 expectant mothers elsewhere so it could refit its birthing unit to treat COVID-19 patients. New York City is beyond that: It is converting a convention center into a temporary hospital. Health officials set up a makeshift morgue outside Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and are searching for more beds and medical equipment. The city’s police force is shrinking as officers fall ill, but they still have orders to patrol the nearly empty streets to enforce social distancing.

Toilet paper isn’t the only product in short supply these days. The closures of schools, businesses, and workplaces due to the coronavirus pandemic mean millions of Americans need ways to pass the time. The owners of The Puzzle Warehouse in St.

A small church in Cleburne County, Ark., has become a local epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Nearly three dozen people connected to Greers Ferry First Assembly of God have tested positive for the new coronavirus, including Pastor Mark Palenske and his wife, Dena, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The other 80 members of the church are still waiting for test results.

President Donald Trump is pushing to get the United States back to work sooner rather than later. During a Fox News virtual town hall, the president said he hoped to ease up on restrictions and get businesses reopened by Easter—a little more than two weeks away. But many health officials are urging tougher restrictions as the number of COVID-19 cases climbs every day.

By Tuesday, the governors of Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia had told residents to stay home, while other states’ shelter-in-place orders announced over the weekend took effect. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state’s rate of COVID-19 infections is doubling about every three days. In just two weeks, New York might have 40,000 people needing intensive care, far more than the 3,000 ICU beds available, he said.

With millions of Americans under shelter-in-place orders, the United States is racing to roll out more testing for the new coronavirus. The Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency authorization for a faster test that should go into production by the end of March, Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday. There are more than 35,000 COVID-19 cases in the United States, and the death toll approached 500 on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.