There will be a fourth coronavirus relief bill in the United States -- this one being dubbed "Corona 4" -- after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) both agreed to a surprising compromise that made it possible.

McConnell walked back days of casting doubt on the wisdom of Corona 4, at one time saying he'd like to first see results from the $2.2 trillion Corona 3 package signed into law March 27, before agreeing to any discussions about Corona 4. The rapidly worsening COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. especially the rising toll being inflicted by the virus on doctors and healthcare workers, however, forced McConnell to ditch his objections in favor or faster action.

As of 03:55 GMT on April 5 (11:55 a.m. April 5 in Hong Kong), the U.S. had 311,635 confirmed COVID-19 cases, or 26% of the world total of 1,202,433 cases, according to Worldometer. The U.S. also reported 8,454 deaths, or 13% of the 64,387 total world deaths. The U.S. still leads the world in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and has the third largest number of deaths after Italy and Spain.

McConnell on Friday confirmed the U.S. Congress will work on Corona 4 with healthcare topping the list of priorities. McConnell's affirmation means leading Senate Republicans are now willing to join Democrats in working on Corona 4.

"There will be a next measure," said McConnell. He said it "should be more a targeted response to what we got wrong and what we didn't do enough for -- and at the top of the list there would have to be the healthcare part of it."

For her part, Pelosi on Friday signaled a shift in the Democrat's priorities for the Corona 4 bill. She said it was important to "update" corona 3's focus on economic relief and not on investments in infrastructure she had stressed earlier in the week.

"While I'm very much in favor of doing some things we need do to meet the (infrastructure) needs, clean water, more broadband, and the rest of that, that may have to be for a bill beyond this," said Pelosi.

She said Democrats will try to add over $350 billion more for small businesses in Corona 4. Democrats also want to make more direct payments to individuals and extend unemployment benefits to six months instead of four.

Pelosi also said Corona 4 should build on the bipartisan relief bills Congress has passed so far rather than include broader Democratic agenda items, such as infrastructure and rural broadband access. These were huge concessions by Democrats.

"While I'm very much in favor of doing some things we need to do to meet the needs -- clean water, more broadband, the rest of that -- that may have to be for a bill beyond that right now."