Stimulus package: Next coronavirus relief could be unveiled by end of July, Senate Republicans say as cases surge in rural areas

Senate Republicans are planning to put together a sweeping coronavirus stimulus package that will be ready by the end of July, Policy Committee Chairman Roy Blunt told reporters on Tuesday.

The bill is expected to include lifelines for health care systems and small businesses that have been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and could authorise another round of stimulus checks for American taxpayers, among several other provisions.

"I think the timing [of late July] is going to be just about right for us to know what we need to know for a package that moves us into August, September and October," Mr Blunt said, CQ Roll Call reported.

Mr Blunt said he had already asked his Senate Appropriations subcommittee panel in charge of funding the Departments of Labour, Health and Human Services, Education, and other related agencies to put together a legislative package focused on bolstering Covid-19 testing resources, vaccine development, and treatment.

Donald Trump has signalled he would like to write more stimulus checks for taxpayers similar to the $1,200-per-adult payments doled out to most Americans earlier this spring and summer.

Asked last week whether he was considering signing legislation that included stimulus checks, the president responded: "Yeah, we are. We are."

"We will be doing another stimulus package. It'll be very good. It'll be very generous," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump did not specify the amount of each check. "You'll find out about it. You'll find out," he said.

The Democratic-controlled House passed an 1,800-page, $3trn bill last month that includes billions of dollars for state and local governments, help for people struggling with rent and mortgage payments, expanded mail-in voting for elections this November, and an infrastructure package that includes a plan to expand broadband internet access.

That bill has languished in the GOP-controlled Senate, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proclaimed it "dead on arrival."

The US Congress has already spent trillions of dollars on Covid-19 relief after passing the $2.2trn so-called CARES Act in March, one of four bills aimed at alleviating pressures from the disease on the economy and health system.

Meanwhile, US health experts are warning that the recent spike in new coronavirus cases — which have been particularly acute in rural areas of the country — could be only the beginning of a new surge if Americans don't take the necessary steps to curtail it.

"We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around," White House infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday.

"And so I am very concerned," Mr Fauci said.

The Trump administration is also pumping billions of dollars into a programme — nicknamed "Operation Warp Speed" — to expedite the development and mass production of a vaccine for Covid-19.

In the roughly four months since the disease was pronounced a global pandemic, more than 128,000 Americans have died from it. More than 2.5m Americans have contracted it.