Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily

202 for Monday, April 27th. In today's news, Debbie Burks warns that social distancing will probably remain in place through the summer.

President Trump calls reports he might fire Alex Azar fake news, and Dutch teenagers sail across the Atlantic after getting stranded in the Caribbean.

But first, the big idea. Viruses are great equalizers. No one is safe. But as George Orwell once put it, some are more equal than others. and COVID-19 is devastating African-American communities across America.

As Georgia reopens, many of its poorest black residents in rural areas cannot get tested let alone

quality treatment. Cheryl Means already has lost so much to this invisible enemy

burning through her hometown.

Her mother and her aunt died within days of each other.

She has a tightness in her chest,

and she's scared she might be next.

But Cheryl can't get a test. Even now, six weeks into this

national emergency with the death toll still climbing in southwest Georgia and

her kin still sick from the coronavirus, even though as a home

health care worker she's at high risk for exposure. Cheryl who's 51 isn't displaying enough symptoms to get the required doctor's referral.

If she wanted though, because she's in the state of Georgia, she could get her hair done and

her nails done and she could go eat out at a restaurant or go to the cineplex.

The governor invited businesses to reopen despite local leaders, public health experts, and residents like Cheryl insisting that the state is not ready.

Of the 20 counties in America, with the most deaths per capita from COVID-19, five are in southwest Georgia, including

early county where Cheryl lives. This area is part of what's known as the

Black Belt.

In the state's hardest hit places, African Americans make up the vast majority of the population

and about 30% of residents live in poverty.

...