JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: COVID in the White House.

As the country moves to reopen, the virus hits at the center of power, as several high-profile members of the Trump administration undergo self-quarantine.

Then: on the front lines -- how pervasive underfunding of a critical Chicago hospital is making the fight against the coronavirus ever more difficult.

And falling through the cracks.

We hear the voices of those with disabilities on how the pandemic exacerbates the shortcomings of the American health care system.

MARTHA HAYTHORN, Disability Rights Advocate: My biggest concern or fear during this is health care big time and medical rationing, because, believe it or not, many people with disabilities are not getting services right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: As of tonight, COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 80,000 people in the United States.

The pandemic has also infected well over 1.3 million people nationwide, including now some in the White House.

We begin with our White House correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, and the day's developments.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: In much of the country, the push to reopen is gaining steam.

DAN HOLMES, Owner, Town Tavern Restaurant: Right now, I have 100 percent of an empty dining room.

So, if you allow me 50 percent, we're cool with it.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Just as the top scientists at the White House advising President Trump are being forced into self-isolation.

Three White House officials leading the nation's pandemic response are all sequestered, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

They are doing so after coming into contact with key White House staffers who have tested positive.

Today, the White House directed all West Wing staff to wear masks at all times in the building, except when they are at their own desks.

Today, at a briefing in the Rose Garden, President Trump weighed in.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We have a lot of people coming in and out.

Many of those people, most of those people are tested, depending on what portion of the Oval Office area they're going in.

Everybody coming into the president's office gets tested.

And I felt no vulnerability whatsoever.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: But President Trump disputed suggestions that, while testing is readily available at the White House, it is still not for the general public.

DONALD TRUMP: We're number one in the world by far, by a factor of two and even three and four, depending on where you are looking.

And I get a question, when will everybody be able to get tested?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Just last week, the president's personal valet tested positive for COVID-19.

Yet, over the weekend, the president met with military leaders without a mask, though CDC guidance that the White House has encouraged Americans to follow says masks can help stop the spread of the virus.

Some White House officials have also voiced worries, including economic adviser Kevin Hassett.

KEVIN HASSETT, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers: It is scary to go to work.

I think that I'd be a lot safer if I was sitting at home than I would be going to the West Wing.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The press secretary for Vice President Pence, Katie Miller, also tested positive for COVID-19.

She has been at many of the task force meetings, working closely with senior officials.

Pence's office is pushing back on reports that he is -- quote -- "self-isolating."

He will continue working in his White House office while making sure to practice social distancing.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who met with Vice President Pence twice last week, said today she would also self-quarantine.

All of this comes amid reports that, in recent weeks, the White House mishandled efforts to collect and distribute personal protective equipment.

But the president continues to strongly defend the response.

He rejects criticism that the states lack testing to ensure they can safely lift restrictions.

Instead, he is pressing for businesses to reopen.

DONALD TRUMP: But we have to get our country open again.

And you see it.

Look, you cover it.

People want to go back.

You're going to have a problem if you don't do it.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Pressure to reopen the economy comes as U.S. unemployment reaches its highest rate since the Great Depression.

In April, more than 20 million Americans filed for unemployment.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC today he is optimistic about the potential effects of reopening efforts.

STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. Treasury Secretary: But I think the numbers are going to be getting better as we go into the summer and we reopen the economy.

And that's the important issue here.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Meanwhile, New York state, which had been the nation's hottest spot in the pandemic, today laid out plans to reopen.

That comes as the state hit its lowest daily death total since March.

In Rochester, Governor Andrew Cuomo said, in some regions, low-risk businesses and activities can restart after May 15.

GOV.

ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We're talking about a phased reopening.

That's what basically everyone is doing.

The question is moderating that phasing and doing it intelligently.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: At the same time, a new CDC report found that deaths from the coronavirus in New York City may actually be some 5,000 higher than the official tally.

Many of those may have been in nursing homes.

The White House today recommended testing for more than a million nursing home residents and staff nationwide in the next two weeks.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And Yamiche joins me now, along with our own William Brangham.

So, Yamiche, first of all, the fact that you now have several people in the White House testing positive for COVID, how is this affecting the ability of the White House to stay on top of this, to monitor and manage this crisis?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Judy, it's pretty remarkable.

Of course, the country as a whole, the world has a whole has been upended by the coronavirus, but the White House itself, its functioning, has been completely upended by this virus.

You have multiple people now that have worked inside the White House who have tested positive, people who have worked closely with the president and the vice president.

You now have the vice president not completely self-isolating, not completely in self-quarantine, but officials tell me that he is keeping his distance and trying to lay low.

You also, of course, have those top scientists who are now going to be testifying before Congress on remote because they too are self-isolating after coming into contact with someone who has now tested positive.

And then you have this remarkable thing that happened today, which was that the White House said every West Wing staffer is now going to have to wear a mask.

The only reason why I'm not wearing a mask right now is because I'm literally standing very close to the White House, but not near the White House.

When I'm inside, I'm wearing a mask.

The person who isn't wearing a mask, President Trump.

He said that he does not feel as though he needs to wear masks if he's not close to anyone.

But there are a lot of questions still there and whether or not the president himself might start wearing a mask, because that -- because every staffer in the White House is now being told they need to do that to stop the spread of this virus.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Yamiche, we know the president spent part of the weekend criticizing a number of people.

What do we know -- what more do we know about his managing, his handling all of this?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right, Judy.

The president spent the weekend and today lashing out at people that he sees as his opponents, talking about the media, talking about Democrats, saying that they're really out to get him.

He talked about the fact that the media is the enemy of the people.

And if you look at all the tweets that he sent -- I think we're putting them up for people -- there are just all sorts of tweets where he's going after, dozens and dozens of tweets.

The president, of course, has been known to tweet and been known to want to use his millions of followers as a way to talk to the American people.

But, in this regard, it was something that was really quite different than what he's done in the past.

One thing that is different is that President Obama, there was some leaked audio of him saying that the president -- that President Trump's reaction to the coronavirus was a - - quote -- "chaotic disaster."

So the president has been talking about the fact that he doesn't like that Obama was criticizing him.

One other thing, the president held a briefing today in the Rose Garden.

He talked about testing.

He stressed that any American who wants or needs a coronavirus test can get a test.

There are officials, of course, and governors that are pushing back on that, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, at that point, I want to bring William in, because, William, you have done a lot of reporting on this.

What do we know about whether what the White House is talking about is adequate for what the needs are, and in particular for people, for businesses to feel comfortable for every place to open up?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, according to all public health experts, we are nowhere near enough testing in this country.

I mean, the president touts that we are doing a record number of tests.

And while that is true -- we have never tested for coronavirus at this capacity -- we are nowhere near what needs to be done in order to really get our hands around the epidemic that we are suffering under.

The estimates vary.

I mean, we are at about 300,000 tests being done per day.

That sounds like a lot.

But Harvard's Global Health Institute last week put out a study that estimated that we needed to be at 900,000 tests per day, so that we are -- a huge gap.

We're only a third of the way there.

I mean, we heard from Caitlin Rivers, testified before Congress.

She's an expert at Johns Hopkins University.

She told Congress last week that, while the estimates vary, we could be needing 3.5 to tens of millions of tests per week.

We are nowhere near that.

So, regardless of what the president says, and says how we are putting out a record number of tests, it's still not enough.

And, again, the thing that we keep hearing is, of course we need to get the economy open.

People want to go back to work.

But, as a business owner, as someone who runs a restaurant or a nursing home or a meatpacking plant or any of the places that we have seen suffer outbreaks, how can you legitimately bring people back to work if you can't tell who is sick and who is not?

That is a recipe for more outbreaks.

And that's the problem we have.

This gap in testing leaves us vulnerable to seeing an increased spike in cases.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, William, to be concrete, what do we know about the administration's record on delivering widespread testing and how that compares to what the president and his team are saying?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, we have seen a series of statements put out by the president and by the White House that are, frankly, not accurate.

The president, at that infamous meeting when he was down at the CDC, said, anyone who wants to get a test in the country can get one.

We know that is not true.

To this day, that is not true.

There are places all over the country -- and, again, not every state is the same.

But there are places all over the country where people are desperate for more testing, need more testing.

They can't get it.

That is not accurate.

Back in March, the White House promised that we would have 27 million tests by that month.

That is not true.

Many people have criticized the president's unwillingness to really use the Defense Production Act to try to address some of the critical shortages for the testing materials, the swabs, the chemicals, the protective gear, that you need to build a robust testing system.

We were promised drive-through testing centers at Walgreens and Walmart and all over the country.

Very, very few of those have actually opened.

Google was supposed to open a Web site that was going to direct people to testing.

That has not come through.

So, again, the thing that's, I think, frustrating to a lot of public health experts is that they argue, if you really want the economy to be growing again and to get people out of their homes safely and back to work, you have to know who is infected and who is not.

And the first step in that process is testing.

And we are just falling down on the job in that regard right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, William, we heard the president again today and an HHS official both say that anyone who wants a test can get one.

That is what they are saying at the White House today.

William Brangham, Yamiche Alcindor, thank you both.

YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks, Judy.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You're welcome, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden blasted President Trump's handling of the pandemic.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Biden wrote: "Trump should be working to get Americans the same necessary protections he has gotten for himself."

The former vice president argued that that's the only way to get the economy going again.

The U.S. Justice Department says that it is considering federal hate crimes charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.

The state attorney general asked for the investigation.

Two armed white men, George and Travis McMichael, chased and shot Arbery in February.

They were charged with murder last week, after video of the incident went viral.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard more arguments by phone today on whether religious institutions can be sued for employment discrimination.

Two former Catholic school teachers in California tried to sue their schools after being let go.

The court must decide whether a 2012 decision on a related question bars the lawsuits.

In Hong Kong, police have arrested more than 200 people after pro-democracy protests on Sunday night.

They're accused of setting fires and blocking streets.

Earlier, demonstrations broke out in shopping malls around the city.

Protesters said that police are using COVID-19 to stifle opposition.

ENOCH CHA, Protester (through translator): In the midst of the coronavirus, the government has imposed restrictions on gathering and turned it into a crackdown on freedom of assembly, not only for the human rights of citizens, but also for other religious activities.

I think this is a gross violation of human rights.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Mass protests against mainland China's rule rocked Hong Kong for much of last year.

Iran's military say that a live-fire exercise gone wrong has killed 19 sailors.

The army says that a missile struck a naval vessel, instead of its intended target, near the port of Jask in the Gulf of Oman.

In addition to the dead, 15 sailors were wounded in the incident on Sunday.

Back in this country, Twitter will post warnings about tweets on the pandemic that contain disputed or misleading information.

The company says that it will not directly fact-check tweets.

Instead, it may cover them entirely or direct users to a link with more information.

Wall Street had an uneven day, as investors kept watch for signs of economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 109 points to close at 24222.

But the Nasdaq rose 71 points.

The S&P 500 added just a fraction of a point.

And two passings of note: Actor and comedian Jerry Stiller has died of natural causes.

He launched his career in the 1950s, teaming with his wife, Anne Meara.

Forty years later, he gained new stardom as the irritable Frank Costanza on "Seinfeld."

Here he is touting Festivus, his substitute for Christmas.

JERRY STILLER, Actor: You gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year!

(LAUGHTER) MICHAEL RICHARDS, Actor: And is there a tree?

JERRY STILLER: No, instead, there's a pole.

Requires no decoration.

I find tinsel distracting.

(LAUGHTER) MICHAEL RICHARDS: Frank, this new holiday of yours is scratching me right where I itch.

JERRY STILLER: Let's do it, then.

MICHAEL RICHARDS: All right.

JERRY STILLER: Festivus is back!

JUDY WOODRUFF: Jerry Stiller was 92 years old.

And Grammy-winning soul singer Betty Wright died of cancer on Sunday at her Miami home.

Her breakthrough came in the 1970s, with hits like "Clean Up Woman," and, later, "Where Is the Love."

Betty Wright was 66.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": how countries at different stages of recovery are handling efforts to reopen; the coronavirus lays bare the needs of a long-neglected hospital; why the pandemic exacerbates health care shortcomings for those with disabilities; and much more.

From Moscow to Milan, and Singapore to Seoul, the watchword these last weeks and months has been lockdown.

Now many of these places are beginning to loosen COVID-19 restrictions.

But, as Nick Schifrin reports, in this global pandemic, the first steps are made cautiously, and with no guarantee that there won't be steps back.

NICK SCHIFRIN: After seven weeks of Spanish quarantine, the beach bums are back.

Spain's small businesses also reopened.

And following one of the world's strictest lockdowns, a cafe con leche tastes like heaven.

OLIVIA ORTIZ, Spain (through translator): It tastes so good.

It tastes like the glory of my life.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For the first time in almost two months, Parisians left the house without government permission.

Shoppers filled the Champs Elysees with their boutiques of choice written on mandatory masks.

VICTORIA BOYARD, France (through translator): Wearing pajamas all day long doesn't help.

I want to go shopping again.

It is good for our morale.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Switzerland, beef is back on the menu, as diners are allowed to return to restaurants.

Elementary school students are back in the Netherlands, sitting behind plastic shields.

And in Russia, despite a new surge of cases, President Vladimir Putin is also looking to reopen.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): Starting from May 12, wherever possible, it is necessary to create conditions for the restoration of work of enterprises in the basic sectors of the economy.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But there's a rip current under this wave of reopenings.

In Seoul, nightclubs have new posters banning gatherings and bars that were open on Friday night now have padlocks.

A single 29-year-old visited this neighborhood last week to go clubbing, and infected more than 50 people.

The only reason the club-goer had been allowed out, South Korea relaxed social distancing 10 days ago.

MOON JAE-IN, South Korean President (through translator): It will be a long time before the COVID-19 outbreak ends completely.

We should also brace for the pandemic's second wave, which many experts are predicting.

DR. REBECCA KATZ, Director, Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security: This is a virus that has a foothold in human populations and is not going anywhere.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Rebecca Katz directs Georgetown's Center for Global Health Science and Security.

DR. REBECCA KATZ: I'm not even sure that we have finished the first wave, and already individuals and decision-makers are trying to move on as if we are over the hump or we're past this problem.

But, in fact, the curves are telling us we are still in the midst of it.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For months, Singapore used widespread testing and meticulous contact tracing to prevent an outbreak.

But positive cases have jumped a hundred-fold because authorities admit they failed to consider these tower blocks.

They're full of foreign workers who can't social-distance.

The spike among those foreign workers exposes the danger of overlooking vulnerable populations.

DR. REBECCA KATZ: Often, you're putting people in situations that are kind of perfect for disease transmission.

And then that transmission passes over to the rest of the population.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In Northeast China, state TV showed police setting up new checkpoints, after warning of a new wave and reclassifying a province as high-risk.

In Wuhan, where COVID-19 began to spread, authorities reported a handful of cases, the first in more than a month.

BORIS JOHNSON, British Prime Minister: We are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In London yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the United Kingdom's first plan to get workers back on the job.

BORIS JOHNSON: Anyone who can't work from home, for instance, those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, this morning, commuters and the opposition party called the guidance confusing.

And Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, rejected the plan, out of fear of a second wave.

NICOLA STURGEON, Scottish First Minister: My judgment right now is that the risk is still too great.

Too many people are still dying.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Countries should lift lockdowns only when they can identify new outbreaks, World Health Organization's emergencies director Mike Ryan said today.

DR. MICHAEL J. RYAN, World Health Organization: If disease persists in countries at a low level without, the capacity to investigate clusters, identify clusters, then there is always the risk that the disease will take off again.

DR. REBECCA KATZ: It's going to require a lot of testing, tracing, isolation, quarantine, treatment when we possibly can, good, strong case management.

These -- this is resource-intensive.

It requires a really robust public health system, which, to be honest, doesn't really exist in those parts of the world.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Which is why experts say, this isn't the second wave; it's the second inning, and there is a long, treacherous path home.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Congress has appropriated roughly $175 billion so far to help hospitals and other health care providers weather the consequences of this COVID pandemic.

But some hospitals are struggling to keep up, and racial disparities in the American health care system are magnifying the problem.

William Brangham is back with our latest conversation he recorded earlier from the front lines of this crisis.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We go now to the city of Chicago, a city that's dealing with its own rising outbreak, and one small hospital on the city's South Side, Roseland Community Hospital, and how it is struggling to keep up.

The front-page story in The Chicago Tribune recently said it all: "Outgunned, outmanned and underfunded."

I'm joined now by Roseland's president and CEO, Tim Egan, and by the manager of its emergency room, Lynette Houston.

Thank you both very much for being here.

Tim Egan, to you first.

For those of us who can't see inside your hospital and see what you all see every single day, can you just give us a picture of what it's like in there now?

TIM EGAN, President and CEO, Roseland Community Hospital: Well, our emergency department has been overrun.

We have 19 bays and our E.D., and, right now, you can find gurneys at the nurses station, patients being treated right in the middle of the hallways.

The demand for our service has been overwhelming.

But we have been meeting that demand.

And it's why we say it's a bright hope during dark chaos.

We're giving people a chance to recover from this disease.

We're giving the best treatment possible.

And I just can't commend our staff enough.

Folks like Lynette, our doctors, our EVS, everyone is stepping to the front lines and delivering the care that people need.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, Tim, staying with you for a second, could you just give us a sense of who your patient population is?

TIM EGAN: Well, the New Roseland Hospital's on the far South Side of the city of Chicago.

We're the last hospital within the city limits on the far South Side.

We're in the greater Roseland community.

And 96 percent of our residents are African-American, and over 87 percent of our patients are Medicaid patients.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And, Lynette, the same question to you as I asked Tim.

We can't see inside your emergency room or your ICU.

Can you give us a snapshot of what it's like, the kinds of patients that you're seeing there?

LYNETTE HOUSTON, Emergency Room Manager, Roseland Community Hospital: The kind of patients that we're seeing here is patients who are coming in suspecting that they have been infected by the virus.

We have a 19-bed E.R., where we have other rooms where we can improvise and put those patients there, which will come up to like 22 beds.

But we're -- now we're also using beds around the nursing station, where we can put at least eight beds around the nursing station.

These people are coming in, and they're sick.

They're sick.

And I know the news says, stay home and try to take care of yourself at home.

But these are people who use the emergency room as their primary physician, because a lot of people in this area don't have their own primary.

So the emergency room is their primary doctor, where they come here for services.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We hear, Tim, a lot of these - - that Congress is passing billions of dollars out to the states and to businesses to try to keep them afloat.

Are you getting help from the state to help offset some of these costs that you're incurring?

TIM EGAN: So we have seen some federal aid that came from the payroll protection program.

But we're after -- we're seeking many more grants.

We need more support.

We have tested 10,000 folks who've come down to our hospital for COVID-19 testing.

You know, the Roseland community is 7 percent of the population of the city of Chicago, and, right now, we're 16 percent of the COVID-19 deaths.

That showcases the disparity in the funding of health care that has happened over decades in the city of Chicago.

While I have seen Medicaid dollars flood out to resources in the suburbs, to multibillion-dollar corporations, hospitals like Roseland have been underfunded.

You know, when I said on the front page of The Chicago Tribune we were outgunned, outmanned and underfunded, I meant it.

We don't have the resources.

We don't have a reserve of funding that we can use to buy new equipment and hire more staff.

And that's because of this woeful lack of funding that we have received over many, many years.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Lynette Houston, Tim is describing a situation that sounds like a terrible circumstance for the staff that has to work in -- day in and day out.

I mean, obviously, the stress of this kind of work, in a contagious environment, where people are worried obviously about themselves getting infected, and yet it sounds like you're having to work incredibly long hours just to meet this demand.

How is everybody holding up?

LYNETTE HOUSTON: My staff is really tremendous.

I take my hat off to them, because this -- it's really -- it can be sometimes overwhelming.

But, sometimes, we go into chats where we try to laugh.

We try to, you know, not look at the other side of it, which is the dark side, because, sometimes, we do lose people.

The numbers of the deaths is rising.

And it has happened here also.

And those families cannot be with their loved ones.

So, it doesn't make our day easy, but we have to keep moving forward.

We have to keep fighting.

And my nurses are really tremendous.

The ICU nurses are really tremendous.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It certainly sounds like it.

Lynette, I understand you haven't had a chance to see as much of your family personally as you would like to.

LYNETTE HOUSTON: I haven't.

I haven't.

I don't -- my daughter doesn't live here, but I normally you go see them every weekend.

I don't go, because I don't want to go around them right now.

(CROSSTALK) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Because you're worried about infection?

LYNETTE HOUSTON: Yes.

But it's not only me.

It's my whole staff.

I have one employee that lives in the garage now.

I have one employee who moved out of her house because she didn't want to be around her mom, who is sick, who has a condition where it's compromised.

So, she don't want to be -- so, it's not only me.

It's -- the sacrifice that we're making, it's a whole group effort.

So, no, we haven't seen our families.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tim Egan, you have said that you have been complaining about the underfunding of hospitals like yours for years, even before the pandemic.

Do you think that this crisis will actually be the thing that finally wakes people up to the importance of community hospitals, to rural hospitals, to small health centers like yours?

TIM EGAN: I'm praying to God that it is.

The number of deaths in the African-American community due to COVID-19 is a call for hope, a desperate call for hope, that we finally get the decision-makers to realize that communities like Roseland deserve an investment in the health care services.

These folks are dying because they have comorbidities.

Folks are dying because they have quad-morbidities.

That's because we're not -- we don't have the ability to treat folks when they were at their earliest onset of diseases, like asthma, COPD, heart disease, obesity.

We need funding for programs, for primary care programs, for outreach to these folks, to get them on a path of wellness and overall health.

And without funding that is absolutely available, we won't be able to do that.

And you will just see more disparity in the deaths in the African-American community, without that desperately needed funding.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Tim Egan and Lynette Houston of Roseland Hospital on the South Side of Chicago, thank you both very, very much for talking with us.

And good luck with all of your work out there.

LYNETTE HOUSTON: Thank you.

TIM EGAN: Thank you.

I appreciate it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And one other note: This is National Nurses Week.

We want to give a special thanks to Lynette Houston for speaking with us and a shout-out to all the nurses working on the front lines of hospitals, clinics, and health care providers around the country.

Thank you.

More than 100 nurses in the U.S. have died since the pandemic began.

That's according to National Nurses United, the largest union of registered nurses in the country.

For more than 60 million Americans with disabilities, the rapid spread of COVID-19 is particularly dangerous.

Many live in long-term care facilities, which are at greater risk for coronavirus deaths.

These Americans also are two times as likely to live in poverty as someone without a disability.

But, so far, legislation has fallen short for helping them.

Stephanie Sy has a closer look at all of this.

And we begin by hearing some voices of those affected by this.

SHARADA VEERUBHOTLA, Teacher, Lavelle School for the Blind: I myself have a visual impairment.

DAVID FRIEDMAN, Special Education Teacher: I'm a wheelchair user.

MARTHA HAYTHORN, Disability Rights Advocate: I am also an advocate with down syndrome.

EMILY LADAU, Writer and Disability Rights Advocate: I have a genetic physical disability called Larsen syndrome.

NOEL LOZADA, Direct Support Professional: I work in a day program.

I'm the lead in the classroom.

SIEW WONG, Father: We have been staying home for the past two weeks due to the COVID-19 shutdown.

ASHLEY FRANCIS, Center for Independence of the Disabled New York: I have one neurological disorder.

And it confines me to a wheelchair.

So, over time, I get a little bit weaker.

LISA PUGH, Mother and Disability Rights Advocate: I have a 20-year-old daughter with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and this has been really hard on her and on all of us, as her routine has just been flipped upside-down.

NICOLE JORWIC, Senior Director of Public Policy, The Arc: I have a brother with autism.

As a family member, my brother going into the hospital right now is our greatest fear.

That is because we don't know the access that he would have to the services.

We don't know how he would be communicated with or how he would be understood.

MARTHA HAYTHORN: My biggest concern or fear during this is health care, big time, and medical rationing, because, believe it or not, many people with disabilities are not getting services right now.

DAVID FRIEDMAN: My husband is my primary caregiver.

If he were to get sick or called back to work before I have to go back to work, the insurance will not allow me to get a home health aide that they will cover, because of the fact I work full-time.

SIEW WONG: Soon-Wai loves to be able to go to work and get a paycheck, right?

SOON-WAI WONG, Minnesota: Yes.

SIEW WONG: It is also a place where he can develop his artistic talents.

It also gives him structure, so that he does not have to spend the whole day staying at home.

That is also very important for me, as that would give me a break from having to keep him busy the whole day.

SHARADA VEERUBHOTLA: As a blind person, when you step out, it's inevitable that you need assistance.

We have the social distancing.

We are talking about not touching each other, which is understandable.

And, on the other hand you need help.

You need somebody sometimes to hold your hand.

LISA PUGH: We're starting to see some challenging types of behaviors.

We have a few new holes in our walls.

And she sometimes just has uncontrollable sobbing during the day, which is heartbreaking for a parent.

ASHLEY FRANCIS: My aides are not coming on a regular basis, as they would before, because they are either scared of getting me sick or scared of getting their family sick.

I feel like I have taken a while to build my independence.

I feel like I'm kind of going backwards.

NOEL LOZADA: There is a spectrum with essential workers.

And the spectrum is, we are at the bottom of the barrel.

Like, the doctors and the nurses and the fire department and the police department are so high up.

And, yes, they put their lives at risk, but so do we.

We have people who make $12 an hour.

And we don't have the proper PPE.

People will stop you in the street, and they will say, God bless you.

You have a place in heaven.

What about my place here?

EMILY LADAU: This is not a pandemic-only problem.

This is a systemic problem that occurs constantly.

And we need to find a way to overcome these inequities in order to move forward and ensure that it's a more accessible world for everyone.

STEPHANIE SY: As you just heard, there are a cascade of challenges facing people with disabilities in this pandemic and facing the people that care for them.

Joining me now for a broader discussion on all these issues is Rebecca Cokley.

She is the director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress.

Rebecca, thank you so much for your time.

REBECCA COKLEY, Disability Justice Initiative Director, Center for American Progress: Thank you so much for having me.

STEPHANIE SY: We just heard a number of people talk about their loss of services.

Can you talk specifically about what services have gone away and how critical they are for people with disabilities?

REBECCA COKLEY: We're hearing stories from all over the country of people who've lost access to home and community-based services, to the people that come into their homes on a daily basis, help them bathe, help them eat, help them learn, help them actively engage in society.

And because of the pandemic, whether it be their caregivers actually contracting the illness or working for organizations that are closing right now due to the illness, we're hearing stories from people who just can't engage in society anymore.

They are worried about the loss of services actually forcing them to be institutionalized or put in a nursing home against their will.

And nobody wants to be in a nursing home right now.

STEPHANIE SY: And so, even as people lose those at home services, they get thrust into a situation that could be more dangerous?

REBECCA COKLEY: Definitely.

Having the inability to prepare food for yourself, having the inability to roll yourself over at night in bed to prevent bedsores, which is one of the most critical issues facing a lot of people with disabilities in this country.

Being unable to roll over in bed might be an inconvenience for a non-disabled person, but it's not going to kill you.

For our folks, that sort of lack of access to services does mean serious injury and potentially death.

STEPHANIE SY: What happens when a person with a disability actually becomes sick with COVID-19?

The Center for Public Integrity recently released a report that said at least 25 states have enacted policies that could mean that people with disabilities could fall to the back of the line if there is an overwhelming need, for example, for ventilators or other health care supports.

REBECCA COKLEY: This is not something new for us.

Any time there's any sort of health care rationing, it's the sad truth of history that we know that typically we're put to the end of the line.

People do not value our lives.

People don't look at disabled men and women and people as anything beyond sometimes being needy.

STEPHANIE SY: For people that don't know, Rebecca, what is health care rationing?

And what does that say to somebody with a disability?

REBECCA COKLEY: When it comes to who gets priority of care, the hospital can actually, in some cases have language that -- that lowers the priority for people with preexisting conditions or other types of disabilities, and so can decide that the 24-year-old with Down syndrome's is life is worth a lower level of quality of care, a lower access to care than, you know, a 72-year-old or a 54-year-old.

STEPHANIE SY: That's got to be pretty painful for a person with a disability to have to confront.

REBECCA COKLEY: Definitely.

And that level of medicalized ableism is something that people with disabilities encounter on a daily basis anyways.

That's the reality we live with as disabled people in this society.

But that doesn't mean it's OK, and we shouldn't be OK with it.

STEPHANIE SY: Rebecca Cokley with the Center for American Progress.

Thank you so much for your insights, Rebecca.

REBECCA COKLEY: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: New infections inside the White House challenge President Trump's plan to reopen the economy.

And two special elections this week offer insights into what voting could look like in November.

Here to break down all this and more, I'm joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and host of public radio's "Politics With Amy Walter," and Tamara Keith of NPR.

She also co-hosts the "NPR Politics Podcast."

Hello to both of you.

Tam, let me start with you and bring up something that we raised much earlier in the program.

And that is, here you have the White House pushing the country, the president pushing the country to reopen as much as possible to try to get the focus away from the health side of this pandemic.

But you have got people who work at the White House coming down with COVID, testing positive for COVID.

How does that complicate what they're trying to do?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Well, it certainly complicates the messaging.

And, you know, the way the White House has been dealing with the safety of its own employees has been to rely very heavily on testing in the last month or so, to rely much more heavily on testing than on social distancing, though testing that is not widely available for the rest of the public.

Most workplaces don't have a test that they could just administer to every employee as they come in.

So, the White House has in the last 48 hours or so instituted a lot of measures that we can probably expect to see at workplaces if and when people begin returning to them, things like people wearing masks in White House, in the West Wing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Amy, how does it complicate White House efforts to get people to -- you know, to say, don't worry about this, we have got it under control, let's focus on getting the economy opened up, when they have got problems right in their own backyard, literally?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: That's right.

I mean, part of the job of the president and of a leader, of course, is to set policy, but it also set standards and sets behavior.

In the 2009 H1N1 so-called swine flu, President Obama actually went out and got the vaccine for that.

This was at a time when there were many folks who were very worried about a vaccine.

There was a big anti-vaccination movement that was pushing people away from getting this vaccine.

So, actually taking the vaccine was supposed to send the signal, if the president can do it, everybody can do it.

But you know what, Judy?

I think whether the president wears a mask or doesn't, or they wear it in the White House or doesn't, what we are seeing in the data, and you can hear anecdotally from regular Americans, is, it's not whether the government says that businesses are open.

It's whether people feel safe to do these things.

And what we are seeing over and over again, if you ask people, even people who say they don't think there should be stay-at-home orders, you ask them, would you be willing to get on a plane, would you be willing to go to the shopping mall right now, they're not.

And until people feel safe doing this, whatever attempts to reopen the economy are going to fall short, because they're going to vote with their feet, more so than anything else.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, speaking of feeling safe, people are already looking ahead to the November elections, wondering if people are going to feel safe then.

There is kind ever a trial run, I guess could you say, tomorrow, Tam.

You have special elections for congressional seats in both Wisconsin and California.

What may we learn in these two contests, if anything, about what lies ahead for voting?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, there is going to be a contrast, right?

In Wisconsin, there will be in-person voting.

And about 250 members of the National Guard will be on hand to help administer that election in a way that is hopefully safe for the people going to vote in Wisconsin.

In California, it is almost overwhelmingly a mail-in balloting situation.

And the state is preparing to be -- I mean, they have already been well on the way to being a stay mail ballot state, but to being a mail ballot state in November.

One thing that stands out to me about that California race is President Trump over the weekend tweeting that the race is going to be rigged if the Republican doesn't win.

That sort of language, the language talking about a race being rigged, the president raising suspicion about mail balloting, that is very much probably a preview of what we can see in November.

AMY WALTER: Yes, I agree.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Amy, what about just in terms of -- go ahead, yes.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

Well, I agree with Tam here, which is, the tweeting out about the worries about the rigging and all, I mean, this is just a one-time election.

As we get closer to the fall, and, in many cases, we may see that ballot counting may take days, because so many people vote by mail.

This kind of sort of sowing the seeds of distrust, even as the process is undergoing -- just remember when we were counting those hanging chads all those years ago.

Now imagine that with this level of toxicity.

That's super dangerous.

The one thing I will say, also, about the special election in California, it looks like it may be the one bright spot for Republicans right now.

This is a seat that had been Republican for a long time.

Democrats flipped it in the 2018 election.

Hillary Clinton won this district.

But right now, when you look at the mail-in ballots -- remember, the president has talked about he doesn't like mail-in ballots -- more Republicans have returned mail-in ballots at this point than Democrats.

So, if Republicans win, it will be on the backs of mail-in ballots.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam, I want to ask you about that, because Republicans have been, in general, much more critical of the idea of mailing in the vote.

But this could be, this, very well an election where they are winning because of mail-in.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, and also because of a compelling Republican candidate and a special election that follows a controversy with the Democrats that won that seat.

There are a lot of reasons why this seat could flip from Democratic to Republican.

It would be the first time a seat in California, a congressional seat, has flipped from Democrats to Republican in a very, very, very long time.

But it wasn't held by Democrats for very long.

But, yes, as you say, President Trump and national Republicans have been highly skeptical in many situations about mail-in balloting.

Then there are other cases where, in Florida, older voters are encouraged to vote by mail.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, it is a special Election Day, tomorrow, Tuesday, May the 12th.

And we will be reporting on it.

But, for right now, it's Politics Monday.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thank you both.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome JUDY WOODRUFF: Coronavirus has upended life as we know it.

But what has it meant for those trying to date?

Lisa Desjardins has that story.

LISA DESJARDINS: The empty restaurants, theaters, and closed public spaces across the country are meant to keep people safe and apart.

That has made dating, the search for being together, just strange.

ADITI JUNEJA, New York: Someone said to me, like, after the pandemic, I'd love to cook you some spicy food.

And I was like, what a weird pickup line.

JEREMY WADE, Ohio: You're trying to build that foundation without a lot of the same tools and interaction that you would normally have.

WOMAN: I had this grand idea that we'd be sending each other letters or something romantic.

(LAUGHTER) MARIANNE SHAEFFER, Pennsylvania: We have gotten really good at both opening up Netflix or Amazon Prime, and starting things at the same, and then resyncing them as we go along.

LISA DESJARDINS: As part of our ongoing coverage of life under this pandemic, we asked some of our viewers to tell us about their experience.

ADITI JUNEJA: I think dating is just, like, always sort of miserable, right, like just as a general rule.

(LAUGHTER) LISA DESJARDINS: Aditi Juneja in New York City is looking for a relationship, and has noticed something different about online dating during the lockdown: ADITI JUNEJA: I am extremely lazy, so I was very much like, I date in Queens.

Like, I'm not going to Brooklyn.

Like, you're crazy.

And now there's like someone in Staten Island I'm talking to, which I'm like, I don't know if we ever meet, but, like, it doesn't matter.

We're not -- no one's going anywhere anyway.

LISA DESJARDINS: Online dating apps like Tinder have temporarily lifted geographic restrictions, and also pushed users to more phone and video dates to encourage social distancing.

Juneja says the pandemic has perhaps also forced people to slow down.

ADITI JUNEJA: It feels also less like people are racing toward some finish line, where you're trying to be like, are you the person I'm going to spend my life with?

Yes?

No?

Get out of my face.

Like, it feels more like, I just want some companionship.

JEREMY WADE: I haven't heard anyone say it that way, but that's a perfect analogy.

LISA DESJARDINS: Forty-five-year-old Jeremy Wade in Columbus, Ohio, met someone just as the shelter-in-place orders began.

So how do they build a romance now?

Virtually, watching the same things at the same time.

JEREMY WADE: I thought about potentially, you know, dancing together, so, you know, putting on the same song and like moving around the room with -- which sounds very awkward and a little nerdy.

But what else are you going to do?

LISA DESJARDINS: Indianapolis paramedic Paul Hess has been trying to keep the momentum going while apart, too.

After 12 years of being single, in November the 56-year-old finally met someone through Facebook.

PAUL HESS, Indiana: She was everything.

She's beautiful.

She's smart.

She's funny.

She's snarky.

She's patient with me.

And that's very important when you deal with me.

LISA DESJARDINS: Because of his work treating COVID patients, he says, last month, he realized that it'd be best to stay away from her and her kids.

So now it's just calls and text messages.

That's been hard.

PAUL HESS: You come home just worn out emotionally and physically.

And, you know, I have to kiss the dog.

I mean, he's a great dog, don't get me wrong, but it's just not the same.

LISA DESJARDINS: Of course, for couples now quarantining together, challenges can come from the other direction: suddenly having too much time together.

T.J. GAYMIN, Pennsylvania: Our actual time in the apartment has exponentially increased.

For me, it's like, you know, you didn't change the toilet paper roll.

JOEY VIOLA, Pennsylvania: Oh, I don't.

You're right.

LISA DESJARDINS: Joey Viola and T.J. Gaymin have been together for two-and-a-half years and live in Philadelphia.

Despite minor annoyances, they say they have grown stronger through this.

JOEY VIOLA: Quarantine has been really good for our relationship.

It kind of was like the ultimate test.

Like, can we stand each other for this many days and hours, unknowing - - like, not knowing how long it's going to be, but doing everything together?

And there was just one day.

It was a few weeks into it.

And I just, like, looked at him.

I was like, I think I'm more in love with you.

And I mean that.

T.J. GAYMIN: Not to negate everything that's happened that's been horrible about this pandemic, but this kind of pause in life has been a really beautiful thing for us.

LISA DESJARDINS: Many echoed that feeling, that, despite all of the frustrations of this moment, it's given them a chance to catch their breath and decide what they want out of life and their relationships.

MARIANNE SHAEFFER: It's kind of like a big reset.

Everybody is checking out their priorities and maybe reexamining where they are in life.

ADITI JUNEJA: It's not that people are behaving differently.

You are actually getting to see, like, truer, more vulnerable senses of who people are.

PAUL HESS: If you're in it for a long run, you got to be in it for the long run.

It's stay the course and hope that everything turns out good in the end, and you finally get to see the people you love again.

LISA DESJARDINS: Hope for seeing the people they love, and, for some, those they are still falling in love with, despite the pandemic.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins in Washington.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally tonight, amid these difficult times, we wanted to acknowledge the outpouring of interest in the furry creatures who keep some of us company on and off camera, and to those pets who are becoming part of the "NewsHour" family on social media too.

It started with a crawl, viewers writing in about feeling reassured and intrigued by seeing our correspondents' beloved cats in the background as they report from home on the "NewsHour" every night.

To some, the background became front and center in their mind, overriding the news at times.

One viewer, Paul, wrote: "My wife and I get ready for the 'NewsHour' Wondering, will William Brangham be on?

Will the cat be on the sofa?

Will it be awake?

Will the PBS logo obscure it?"

And to Lisa Desjardins, viewer Craig wrote: "My cat was watching your cat dig into the crack in your sofa, and he pointed out to me that he felt your cat was getting treats, and it's just not fair to other cats."

So we wanted to reveal now what there's been a clamoring for.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This is Pepper.

JUDY WOODRUFF: William's cats are all rescues, 10 year-old Pepper, the TV star, and also Tiki and Sugar, who don't gravitate to the limelight.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Who is a good girl?

JUDY WOODRUFF: There's also Macy the dog, but she isn't allowed into the interview room because she's a barker.

And Lisa's.

LISA DESJARDINS: This is Rocky.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Like William's, he's a rescue cat.

He is a southpaw, jabs with his left, like his namesake, Rocky Balboa.

The crawl of mail led to an onslaught, dozens of notes, and then followers on social media naming their rescue shelter pets for some of our on-air team.

Erin Carlstrom on Twitter: "In the midst of all this chaos, please meet Connor Woodruff.

Thank you bringing sanity to our home every 'NewsHour.'"

And Scott tweeted: "I wanted to name him after my NewsHour favs too, but I went a little crazy.

His full name is Snoopy Desjardins Alcindor Woodruff."

Some viewers grew concerned when the cats were hiding.

One wrote in all caps: "WHERE WAS THE BRANGHAM CAT TONIGHT?"

And then the fans went wild.

Some accounts popped up on Twitter purporting to represent the cats themselves.

We'd be remiss if we didn't give a shout-out to the dogs and cats of the "NewsHour," seen here on our Zoom editorial meeting call, and supporting our staff behind the scenes.

As American poet Linda Pastan wrote: "Into the gravity of my life, the serious ceremonies of polish and paper and pen has come the manic animal, whose innocent disruptions make nonsense of my old simplicities, as if I needed him to prove again that, after careful planning, anything can happen."

We hope that a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes life of the broadcast makes you feel more a part of the "NewsHour" family.

Thank you for watching.

You have got to love -- you have got to love all these pictures and these animals.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," and our pets, thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.