As the growing economic toll of the coronavirus became clearer, the White House said Tuesday that it supported the idea of sending cash payments directly to Americans.

Republicans and Democrats have fought to balance giving financial protections to workers who need to stay home and businesses that may be cash-strapped in supporting those workers.

The U.S. could already be entering a recession because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered bars and restaurants and drastically changed American life, according to a Tuesday analysis from S&P Global.

As the growing coronavirus pandemic shut down school for millions of students, educators are worried not just about missed class time but also about missed meals. A majority of the nation’s 50 million schoolchildren come from households poor enough to qualify them for free or subsidized lunches.

The number of cities and states ordering people to distance themselves over the coronavirus pandemic is rising Tuesday as health officials tout a consistent message: Limit your interactions now or overwhelm the health systems meant to take care of you.

Just about 56% of Americans consider the coronavirus a "real threat," representing a drop of 10 percentage points from last month. At the same time, a growing number of Americans think the coronavirus is being "blown out of proportion." The differences between political parties are stark, with a majority of Republicans saying it is overblown and the vast majority of Democrats considering it a legitimate threat.

With U.S. cases of the coronavirus pushing past 3,500, health officials warn that the public must step up isolation and social distancing measures if there’s any hope of avoiding a spike in infections that will overwhelm the health-care system. But the pleas are falling on deaf ears in some of the nation’s biggest party destinations.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that two of its workers have been diagnosed with the coronavirus as health care workers across the U.S. begin to test positive, prompting many on the frontlines to prepare for the likelihood of a long road ahead.

Working at a breakneck pace, a team of hundreds of scientists has identified 50 drugs that may be effective treatments for people infected with the coronavirus.

"As of today, 152 countries across the globe are affected by this new virus and over 7,000 people have lost their lives to it," the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe said Tuesday, describing the reach of a coronavirus that is disrupting lives in countries around the world.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would expand Medicare coverage of telehealth services to allow seniors to see their doctors without having to leave home. As the coronavirus spreads throughout the country, doctors have raced to increase telehealth services to keep patients from flooding overtaxed emergency rooms and to reduce the risk of people with covid-19 infecting healthy patients and doctors.

"We are trying to make as much room as possible, so when this virus hits our jail, the jail can deal with these people, quarantine them and deal with it instead of letting them sit there and infect the whole entire jail," Brendan Sheehan, administrative judge of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, told CNN.