Here’s your daily roundup of all the local and national news about COVID-19. (Like our coverage? Please consider donating to the Mercury to keep it comin’!)

• As of today, Oregon’s total number of COVID-19 cases is 1,986 (71 more than last Friday), with the total death toll at 75. 40,045 people have been tested.

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Assuming there isn’t still a lag in finding people who got sick from coronavirus between April 4 and April 8, this onset of symptoms graph suggests there may be a slight downward trajectory.

(Disregard the shaded area. More cases will get reported to @OHAOregon in that time). pic.twitter.com/HYxvIKnkUl
— Brad Schmidt (@_Brad_Schmidt) April 20, 2020

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• In NEWS OF THE STUPID: Thousands of people in Olympia, WA; Redmond, OR; Harrisburg, PA; Denver, CO; and Austin, TX have been staging public protests demanding that state governors rescind their lockdown orders.

Happening today in Pittsburgh. Trump, the @NRA and Russia must be so proud of this proliferation of both chaos and illness. https://t.co/Ey80wgbNqh
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) April 20, 2020

I. LOVE. THIS. ❤👏😎

Nurses block white nationalist anti-social distancing protests in Denver pic.twitter.com/fU1YqtqIdW

— The Hummingbird 🐦 (@SaysHummingbird) April 20, 2020

• These lockdown protests are being organized by a few people using Facebook groups: “A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations are being engineered by a network of conservative activists,” reports the Washington Post.

These protests are tiny, planned by fringe folks who have made a healthy living using Facebook to bait and bilk folks who are terrified of Big Government and Bill Gates-like boogey men taking away their freedoms and injuring their children with poison. This is not regular folks. pic.twitter.com/ZVTQ3go73V
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) April 20, 2020

• What does Trump think about the lockdown protests? Not a problem, because “They seem to be protesters that like me.”

• What do most Americans think about the lockdowns? Nearly sixty percent want them to continue, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

• What’s really going to end the need for lockdowns? Testing, testing, testing.

• While social distancing methods are definitely slowing the coronavirus, the outbreak is getting worse in certain parts of the nation… and in those places that refuse to social distance? Their horror story is just getting started.

• Since Trump and the federal government have proven themselves incapable of providing enough coronavirus tests, states are taking the matter into their own hands. Maryland, for example, is cutting deals for thousands of tests from South Korea.

• Today’s “No Shit, Sherlock” headline of the day: “Female world leaders hailed as voices of reason amid the coronavirus chaos.”

• Those antibody tests that have been touted as the best way to pull the US out of perpetual quarantine are raising alarm bells among public health experts. The majority of tests being hurriedly distributed in the US are not FDA approved and are easy to misinterpret, clear signs that the White House has placed speed (and politics) over safety.

Oregon National Guard distributing PPE items to care centers statewide https://t.co/hLl5r2UL2D
— KGW News (@KGWNews) April 20, 2020

• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said today that both sides of Congress are working toward approving more funding for the PPP and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, with another $350 billion intended for small businesses, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for testing.

• The Paycheck Protection Program, a big part of the $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at small businesses, seems to have mostly benefited large businesses before running out of money almost immediately. One such business, the fast-food chain Shake Shack, has returned the $10 million loan it received in the hopes an actual small business might get the money.

• US oil prices, which were up around $60 a barrel in January, are now currently hovering under $2 a barrel today.

Now it will be cheaper for Republicans to set the country on fire. https://t.co/EcIoCN6eCi
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) April 20, 2020

• In other small-town news: The town of Sublimity, OR (pop. 3000) responded to an outbreak in a local retirement home by launching a Masks for Neighbors program intending to distribute 12,000 homemade masks door-to-door to every one of the town’s residents, as well as those in neighboring Marion County communities.

• Dear Chad: Just because Portland’s streets are quieter doesn’t mean you get to indulge all your dumb-as-rocks fantasies of being Dom Torretto.

• You’re celebrating 4/20, right? Then what better way than to get your tickets now for the SPLIFF film fest? The final live stream showing is TONIGHT AT 7 PM.

• Need a laugh? Get your tickets PRONTO for the live stream edition of the I, Anonymous show on April 24! Check out the details and the KILLER lineup of comedians here!

• And finally, I think Congress needs to start pushing for a “National Forced Nap Time” for our essential workers.

Some folks are still working during the Coronavirus pandemic.

He had one job.

Stay awake…🤭🤣😭💀💀pic.twitter.com/WkftQH5Fca
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) April 20, 2020