The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 1,000 points Thursday afternoon amid mounting signs of economic problems ahead.
China remains the worst-hit country overall, with deaths surpassing 3,000 and confirmed cases topping 80,000. President Xi Jinping on Thursday canceled a planned state visit to Japan. But the epidemic is now slowing in China, while other countries are seeing outbreaks grow rapidly. In South Korea, mass testing has turned up more than 6,000 cases; the virus has caused more than 40 deaths there. Italy has confirmed more than 3,000 cases, along with more than 100 deaths.
The full extent of the outbreak remains hard to ascertain, in part because of political considerations. Hospital data obtained by The Washington Post suggests that Iran, which has reported 107 deaths, may be vastly underestimating the epidemic’s impact. North Korea, another authoritarian state, has released little information about possible cases.
The United States confirmed its 11th death from the outbreak Wednesday, along with more than 150 confirmed cases. Health experts have warned that the country may struggle to rapidly test thousands of Americans. President Trump downplayed worries Wednesday evening, telling Fox News that a 3.4 percent mortality rate announced by the World Health Organization was “false” and suggesting that it was under 1 percent. “This is really my hunch,” Trump said.
Here are the latest developments:
- The Senate voted nearly unanimously to approve $8.3 billion in emergency spending for combating the coronavirus outbreak, sending the measure to the White House.
- Tennessee confirmed its first coronavirus case and Illinois its fifth. Two more people were hospitalized with the virus in New York City, and the total number of infections in New York state rose to 22. The United Kingdom announced its first death from covid-19.
- At a House committee hearing on the coronavirus, medical experts cautioned that the outbreak’s scale in the United States remains uncertain, although expanded testing should help define the scope. Experts say Trump officials have are giving confusing information about insurance coverage for tests and medical care, according to experts.
- The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem will shut down for at least two weeks starting Thursday as the city revered by Christians steps up its response to new cases of coronavirus infections in the Palestinian territories.
- Italy’s prime minister unveiled an $8.4 billion stimulus package hoping to stave off some of the economic pain caused by the country’s widening outbreak.
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Senate approves $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill, sending measure to Trump
The Senate on Thursday voted nearly unanimously to approve $8.3 billion of emergency spending for combating the coronavirus outbreak, sending the measure to the White House for enactment.
The vote was 96 to 1.
The House voted on an identical measure Wednesday and approved it 415 to 2. The Senate’s sole dissenting vote came from Kentucky Republican Rand Paul.
The legislation was introduced Wednesday, and the unusually swift and bipartisan action by both chambers of Congress underscored the pressure lawmakers are feeling to respond. The virus has provoked growing fear among many Americans, led to canceled travel plans, closed some schools and businesses, and raised fears about a U.S. recession.
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Cruise ship quarantine lessons not being learned, warns senator
At the Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said she was worried that lessons from the earlier Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak off the coast of Japan — in which people were kept on board too long and hundreds became infected — were not being applied to the latest cruise liner in limbo off California.
One passenger from this cruise ship, the Grand Princess, died from the virus after they had disembarked. Some staff are now showing symptoms.
“We don’t seem to have a quarantine in place,” Hassan said.
“That [on the Diamond Princess] was a bad quarantine,” acknowledged Ken Cuccinelli, a senior Homeland Security official. “That was not a successful quarantine. The lessons we learned there were negative lessons.”
Hassan added, “It sounds from news that we are repeating the same thing.”
She noted that, unlike the Diamond Princess passengers, where there was concern about overwhelming scarce medical facilities if they were removed from the Grand Princess, “we have the whole country available to us.”
But Robert Kadlec, assistant Health and Human Services secretary for preparedness and response, told the committee, “We don’t have the quarantine capacities and treatment capacity. We maxed out that capacity at the University of Nebraska,” where the sickest Diamond Princess passengers were hospitalized.
Increased U.S. screening for coronavirus cases at borders
Acting Deputy Director of DHS Ken Cuccinelli on Thursday told members of Congress that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has amplified its screening for potential coronavirus cases at U.S. land border points of entry, in addition to its airports.
He added that the United States has so far “excluded over 300 foreign nationals” at the three border crossings most heavily used by Chinese nationals, some of whom, he said, have flown to Canada or Mexico in an effort to skirt U.S. travel restrictions pertaining to coronavirus.
The United States is banning the entry of most foreign nationals who recently visited or departed China. U.S. citizens and permanent residents who recently visited China are subject to additional screening, and thousands of them — including those who have no symptoms of illness — have so far been referred for 14 days of self-monitoring and isolation at home.
“It has not been uncommon for Chinese nationals to fly to Tijuana or Vancouver or Montreal … and then cross into the United States,” Cuccinelli told lawmakers Thursday at a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus. “The three largest land ports of entry for Chinese nationals are Blaine, Wash.; Buffalo, N.Y., and San Ysidro in California … At those three ports, the numbers [of Chinese nationals crossing] are sufficiently high that we staged at cooperation with HHS medical personnel there much like we have at the airport,” he said.
The largest group told they could not enter were Canadian nationals who had recently traveled to China, he said, followed by Chinese.
“We have been very aware of it, and confronting it head on, and turning those folks back, frankly,” Cuccinelli added.
Cuccinelli said CBP official at airports and other ports of entry were giving “obviously a heightened focus” to any travelers who had visited China or Iran, “but also [South] Korea, Italy and Japan.” He said travel history is the “first and biggest flag” for CBP officials screening arrivals to the United States. He also said administration officials were daily reevaluating the possibility of an expanded travel ban.
Currently, individuals identified as having visited high-risk zones might be pulled aside for secondary screening; individuals deemed particularly at risk are referred for medical screenings by contractors on site at ports of entry; and potential cases are then referred to the CDC.
Esper meets with senior officials to discuss military’s coronavirus plan
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Thursday that he had met for 90 minutes with senior officials, including some four-star generals, to discuss dealing with the coronavirus, and that he expects to receive a detailed plan with options next week.
Esper, speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon, said he has three priorities in dealing with the disease: protecting service members and their families, safeguarding the military’s capabilities and supporting other parts of government.
“We are continuing to push more and more resources their way as they need them,” Esper said. “But they are fairly in good shape at this time.”
Esper said that the group had a “good conversation” about the Pentagon and other Defense Department installations, and that the plan he receives will cover mitigation and prevention measures.
The U.S. military in South Korea already is dealing with cases of coronavirus, and Army Gen. Robert Abrams, the top U.S. commander there, has developed a good model to deal with it, Esper said.
“It’s simple things, like having teams wipe down doorknobs and copy machines and stuff like that to prevent the spread,” he said.
Esper added that the defense officials “also will look at travel,” without specifying how.
"I hope by the end of next week we should start putting in some measures to address prevention and then, of course, part of that plan will address mitigation,” he said.
Esper noted that the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon is able to go weeks at a time with people locked inside if there is an outbreak.
Trump officials give confusing information about insurance coverage for tests and medical care
At Wednesday evening’s White House briefing on the government’s response to the coronavirus, Vice President Pence was asked what can be done so that tests and medical care are affordable to all Americans who need them.
“With regard to the cost, let me be very clear,” the vice president replied. The Department of Health and Human Services “has designated the coronavirus test as an essential health benefit. That means, by definition, it’s covered in the private health insurance of every American, as well as covered by Medicare and Medicaid.”
In mentioning essential health benefits, Pence was referring to an element of the Affordable Care Act that spells out certain broad categories of care that must be included by certain health plans sold to individuals and small businesses.
But according to an insurance industry official and a federal health official, talking on the condition of anonymity to speak without authorization, the vice president’s remarks were in error.
For one thing, the federal government defines 10 broad categories of essential health benefits, such as emergency treatment, hospital stays and lab services. But federal rules give states, not HHS, the decision over exactly what is covered within each category.
In addition, the vice president was wrong for another reason, they said. The ACA’s categories of essential benefits apply to health plans sold to individuals and small businesses — and not to most privately insured Americans who get health benefits through a larger company.
The confusion continued Thursday morning, when Seema Verma, administrator of HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other senior health officials spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill after briefing members of Congress.
Asked to clarify whether private insurers can be required to cover tests and care for the coronavirus, Verma said, “Essential health benefits are defined in law, and it does not in that particular section of the law, it doesn’t actually identify laboratory tests.”
Verma added that in the ACA marketplaces “and the products that are being offered there, this is a coverage services that is required.”
She did not mention that lab tests are one of the broad categories though not the state-defined services, or that the categories also apply to small businesses’ health plan.
Verma said that to be certain whether their health plan covers the tests or care, “they need to check with their insurance company."
U.S. markets tank as coronavirus outlook worsens
As coronavirus upends more aspects of life in the United States, Wall Street’s only certainty is this: The uncertainty will continue.
The Dow Jones industrial average tanked more than 1,000 points Thursday afternoon as investors fled stocks over coronavirus worries and headed for the safety of U.S. debt. The blue chip index briefly tipped 1,030 points in the red, or 3.4 percent around 1 p.m.
All 11 Standard & Poor’s stock market sectors were negative, as were all 30 Dow blue chips.
The flight to debt sent the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury — a global financial mainstay — sinking to record lows. The weakening yields could be an ominous sign of a weakening economy. Bond yields decline as their prices rise due to demand. Gold, another safe haven, climbed 0.3 percent.
Thursday’s stock decline follows an eye-popping rally Wednesday that was largely fueled by Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victories and the likelihood of a moderate option to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was the second rally this week to see the blue-chip index clip more than 4 percent. And just like before, investor euphoria quickly gave way to more jitters — and more losses.
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Princess Cruises ship held off California coast with sick passengers
Acting deputy secretary of homeland security Ken Cuccinelli told members of Congress on Thursday that Coast Guard helicopters were in the process of flying test kits to the cruise ship off the California coast “literally as we’re speaking."
“We’re going to test, if not everybody, a very large number of individuals,” Cuccinelli said during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the federal response to the coronavirus.
The Princess Cruises ship was held in waters off California early Thursday after people who had traveled on it Feb. 11-21 later got sick and tested positive. One passenger who had departed the ship has since died.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said during an earlier news conference that he had asked that the Grand Princess, which left San Francisco on Feb. 21 for a voyage to Hawaii, avoid returning to the state until testing could be completed.
On Wednesday night, he said 21 people — 11 passengers and 10 crew members — were symptomatic and would be prioritized for testing, along with those who sailed on the previous voyage, to Mexico, with those who later became sick.
“That number may significantly understate,” he said. “It may indeed be an abundance of caution.”
Health departments in Placer and Sonoma counties in Northern California each announced one case of the virus among people who were on the voyage in recent days. One of those people has since died, Placer County Public Health said Wednesday, marking the first coronavirus-related death in California.
Amy Goldstein and Michael Brice-Saddler contributed to this report.
New York now has 22 coronavirus cases
NEW YORK — The number of coronavirus cases in New York rose to 22, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) told reporters Thursday afternoon.
“We did a significant number of tests overnight,” Cuomo said, which doubled the confirmed number of cases from 11 on Wednesday.
Of the covid-19 cases in New York, three men and one woman are hospitalized, including a 42-year-old man in Nassau County, and a man in his 40s and a woman in her 80s who are both in New York City hospitals. The fourth hospitalized patient, a 50-year-old attorney from New Rochelle, was one of the first people diagnosed with covid-19 in the state.
He has an underlying respiratory condition and, though he remains in the hospital, “he is getting better,” said Howard Zucker, commissioner of the state’s health department.
That man’s case is tied to 17 additional cases, all from a close-knit Jewish community in the Westchester region of New York. Those include members of his family, friends and the neighbor who drove the attorney to the hospital. They have mild or no symptoms and are quarantined at home, officials said.
Health officials have asked two dozen to three dozen people to remain at home, Cuomo estimated, in addition to the “hundreds” of individuals who have chosen to self-quarantine in Westchester County.
Illinois confirms its fifth coronavirus case
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) said the fifth case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the state — a man in his 20s who contracted the virus during recent travel to Italy. This is a presumptive positive case, awaiting final confirmation by the CDC.
The man is currently in isolation at Rush University Medical Center and is in stable condition.
“Our investigations are ongoing,” Pritzker said.
He also said the third and fourth cases confirmed in the state are a couple in their 70s who recently traveled to a state with community transmission. However, he said, it’s possible this is an indication of community transmission within Illinois.
“We have to consider the possibility that this could have been a case of community transmission” taking place in Illinois, Pritzker said.
He urged the public to be calm and take steps that would normally be taken to protect them from the flu, such as hand washing and staying home from work when sick.
Starbucks ‘pausing’ the use of personal cups
Starbucks will temporarily stop letting customers use their own cups when they buy coffee and other drinks in its North American stores over concerns about spreading the novel coronavirus.
The coffee retailer, based in Seattle, where the virus outbreak has been particularly intense, is “pausing the use of personal cups,” as well as “for here” cups that the company washes and reuses, according to a letter that Rossann Williams, executive vice president and president of its U.S. company-operated business and Canada, wrote and published on Starbucks’s website.
The company said it will continue to give the 10-cent discount to anyone who brings their own cup or asks to use for-here cups.
“Although the situation remains fluid, our U.S. and international markets have gleaned learnings from our leadership team and partners in China who were first faced with this epidemic,” Williams wrote.
In January, Starbucks closed more that 2,000 stores in China as the virus spread there. Like other U.S. companies, it has restricted all business-related air travel, both domestic and international, through March 31.
Italy pledges $8.4 billion stimulus to help families and businesses facing economic ‘emergency’
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday unveiled an $8.4 billion stimulus package to stave off some of the economic pain caused by the country’s widening coronavirus outbreak.
The measures, which amount to nearly 0.4 percent of the country’s GDP, must receive parliamentary approval. But they mark the most significant fiscal step that Italy has taken to date in battling a crisis that has caused 148 deaths, led to the national cancellation of schools and halted many businesses across the north.
Even before the outbreak erupted and the containment efforts began, Italy was on the verge of its fourth recession since 2008, and it was projected to have the weakest economic growth this year in the European Union.
The virus has since caused a series of economic problems. It prompted tourism to abruptly crash in what had been one of the world’s most-visited countries. The decision to cancel schools forced many parents to skip work themselves. And the virus has struck most heavily in the industrialized north, in regions most responsible for Italy’s production and employment.
Conte said on Thursday that the stimulus was being allocated to “families and businesses that are facing this emergency.”
Health-care workers on the front line worry about coronavirus impacts
Are you a nurse, doctor or other health-care worker fighting coronavirus on the front lines? Share your experience with The Post.
In widespread outbreaks of infectious disease, health-care workers are almost always hit hard.
During the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2009, the Ebola crisis in West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and the early stages of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, caregivers were more likely than other groups to become infected. Many became severely ill or died.
Now health workers and the health-care system are worried about what may happen as front-line providers become sick or are sent home after exposure to patients with the coronavirus.
Maintaining the labor pool is one of the most important tasks that hospitals and nursing homes will confront in coming weeks, experts said, along with having the face masks, moon suits and other gear needed to protect them.
The system already faces shortages of some critical personnel.
“Equipment is only as useful as the people you have to use it,” said Julie Fischer, who studies ways to protect front-line health-care workers for Georgetown University Medical Center. “Every system is about people.”
Already, the damage a single infection can do to a hospital staff has become alarmingly evident. A woman now being treated at the University of California at Davis first showed up at a small community hospital in nearby Vacaville on Feb. 15, unknowingly exposing staff members to the coronavirus.
After the virus was diagnosed, 93 health-care workers who had contact with her were placed in home isolation. About 34 began to show symptoms and were tested for the virus. Three tested positive.
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House Democrats press administration officials on Trump comments blaming Obama
House Democrats had a heated exchange with the nation’s top health officials in a closed-door briefing Thursday about President Trump’s attempt to pin some of the blame for the coronavirus outbreak on former president Barack Obama, lawmakers said.
At issue were comments Trump made during a coronavirus briefing at the White House on Wednesday, when he claimed that “the Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing, and we undid that decision a few days ago so that the testing can take place in a much more accurate and rapid fashion.”
Trump appeared to be referring to notification the Food and Drug Administration issued Saturday aimed at making it easier for nongovernmental labs to move forward quickly with testing if they develop tests on their own. However, some Democratic lawmakers were angered over Trump’s attempts to blame Obama.
“The briefing did get rather heated,” said Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.).
Porter said lawmakers were told by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that “nothing about the prior policy had worsened our response, and nothing about any change in policy is going to dramatically improve our response.”
“I think this was a lot of hubbub by the president about nothing,” Porter added.
Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) said that he posed the question to Anthony Fauci, a top official at the National Institutes of Health, but that Azar stepped in to answer.
Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within NIH, has already been at the center of controversy over whether the administration has tried to silence him during the coronavirus outbreak — something he denies.
After the briefing, Azar, Fauci and other officials addressed reporters publicly.
Fauci was pushed to explain Trump’s comment blaming Obama but demurred, saying: “I can’t comment on that, because I don’t even know about what that is.”
Azar then interjected, telling reporters: “He doesn’t run the FDA. It’s an FDA question.”
Anand Shah, FDA deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, then came to the microphones and described the FDA’s actions as “regulatory relief” intended to “allow these tests to get to patients hopefully faster.”
Britain confirms first death tied to coronavirus
Britain confirmed its first coronavirus-related death on Thursday.
In a statement, Royal Berkshire Hospital said that “an older patient with underlying health conditions” died after being admitted to the hospital Wednesday evening and testing positive for coronavirus.
The individual had “previously been in and out of hospital for non-coronavirus reasons,” the statement said.
Public Health England is working on tracking down anyone who may have come into close contact with the patient, the statement said.
Trump defends coronavirus comments, pushes back on ‘disinformation’
President Trump pushed back via Twitter on Thursday morning against criticism of his administration’s coronavirus response efforts.
“I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work,” Trump tweeted. “This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats.”
But on Wednesday night, on Sean Hannity’s program on Fox News, Trump said many people with the virus get better simply by going about their normal activities.
“A lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild. They’ll get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor. They don’t even call a doctor,” Trump said. “You never hear about those people. So you can’t put them down in the category of the overall population in terms of this corona flu and — or virus. So you just can’t do that.”
“So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better,” he concluded.
Later Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that his actions, including instituting restrictions on travel to and from countries with active coronavirus spread, are limiting the cases in the United States.
He cited 129 cases in the country, including 40 Americans who contracted the virus while traveling abroad, along with 11 deaths. However, the total number of U.S. cases is now greater than 150.
Trial in Manhattan interrupted by cleaning after possible coronavirus contact
A federal trial in Manhattan was interrupted Thursday morning when the court became aware that a prospective juror who was dismissed during jury selection had potential exposure to the coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan did not tell the jurors who were ultimately selected for the criminal trial that she was ordering the early, hour-long break so that her courtroom could be disinfected. She called the panel in to tell them about the break around 11:30 a.m.
“Unfortunately we need to take an early lunch break,” Nathan told the jury, telling the group to return to a different courtroom at 12:30 p.m. The break came during cross-examination of a witness in the economic-sanctions trial of Iranian national Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad.
Outside the presence of the jury, Nathan emphasized that the cleanup was precautionary. Her courtroom is in the 40 Foley Square courthouse, one of two buildings that constitute the Southern District of New York.
“There’s no need to panic,” the judge told the lawyers on the case. “A lot of places are dealing with this level of stuff, and it’s just a matter of needing to clean the courtroom.”
Nathan later did disclose more information in open court and notified the jury privately in a back room before resuming testimony for the afternoon.
The person in question “got a letter from the health department saying they were in temple on the same day as someone who has been diagnosed with covid-19,” the judge said. “The person has no signs of symptoms and has not tested positive.”
Nathan noted that the juror — who has not been identified — has been asked to self-quarantine. She added that the knowledge of his possible contact “puts us in a more informed situation than anyone who rode the subway with this person on that day.”
Nejad is on trial for allegedly filtering at least $115 million through Venezuela to the United States. It is expected to last at least through the end of next week.
State Department blames ‘swarms of online, false personas’ from Russia for coronavirus misinformation
A top State Department official warned Thursday that Russia is behind “swarms of online, false personas” seeking to spread misinformation about the novel coronavirus on social media sites, stressing that the “entire ecosystem of Russian disinformation is at play.”
Lea Gabrielle, coordinator of the government’s Global Engagement Center, gave the warning in testimony to Congress. Her remarks come days after an unpublished agency report, unearthed by The Washington Post on Saturday, revealed that nearly 2 million tweets over a three-week period pushed coronavirus-related conspiracies abroad.
Gabrielle did not link that report with her broader conclusions about Russian meddling online. But she said actors tied to Russia — through “state proxy websites,” state-owned media and fake accounts online — were part of an effort to “take advantage of a health crisis, where people are terrified worldwide, to try to advance their priorities.”
Gabrielle’s comments, shared in advance with The Post, came as part of a broader congressional inquiry into the Global Engagement Center, an arm of the State Department that fights propaganda abroad. The agency’s work has taken on greater significance in the midst of the 2020 presidential campaign, four years after Russian agents sought to weaponize social media to undermine the 2016 race.
Read more here.
Palestinian Health Ministry confirms coronavirus cases in Bethlehem
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed its first cases of coronavirus on Thursday, saying seven Palestinians, all staff in at the Angel Hotel in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, were infected with the virus.
Earlier Thursday, the ministry said a group of Greek tourists had also been diagnosed with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. Those tourists have returned to Greece.
Palestinian officials immediately ordered all hotels in Bethlehem to stop booking tourists and groups from outside the West Bank and closed religious sites, including the Church of the Nativity for at least the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, Israel released from solitary confinement nine Israelis that had been passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. The group, who returned to Israel two weeks ago, had been staying in a special isolation facility in a Tel Aviv hospital.
House Science Committee questions experts on coronavirus testing and research findings
At a House committee hearing on coronavirus and other disease outbreaks, medical experts cautioned that the outbreak’s progression in the United States is not yet known but said expanded testing would greatly improve their ability to know about the virus’s spread.
Suzan Murray, program director of Smithsonian’s Global Health Program, said she is working with colleagues to identify similar coronaviruses in Asia that could threaten human health, and have turned up some in China that are closely related to covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Peter Hotez, professor and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said there is still time to prepare for a larger outbreak in this country.
“It’s not like you’re going to wake up tomorrow morning and find that the entire eastern half of the U.S. is infected,” he told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. “You will have time to prepare.”
“There are some who say there may be seasonality to this [virus]. We don’t know that at all because it’s a new agent,” Hotez added.
Lawmakers questioned researchers about the importance of more diagnostic tools, such as testing kits, to get a better idea of how many cases there are in the United States. Other countries, such as South Korea, have already rolled out testing on a much larger scale.
Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said rapid tests are key to finding milder cases and preventing the illness from spreading to more nursing home settings, where it could affect more vulnerable patients.
“We don’t actually know what is happening at the community level,” she said.
Tennessee confirms first infection days after deadly tornadoes
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) confirmed the state’s first case of the novel coronavirus in the state outside Nashville, just days after tornadoes ripped through the area, killing at least two dozen people.
“It’s been a very difficult week for our state in a lot of ways,” Lee said in a news conference Thursday. “Preparedness is how we deal with situations like this.”
The person with the virus, a 44-year-old man living in Williamson County south of Nashville, has recently returned from out of state but had not traveled internationally, said Lisa Piercey, the state’s health commissioner.
The man is isolated at home with mild symptoms of the virus that causes the disease covid-19, and his household contacts are quarantined and being monitored for symptoms, she said.
“Please be reassured that we are working diligently to identify and contact those who have been exposed,” Piercey said.
Virus puts pressure on U.S. troops and families in South Korea, Italy
The coronavirus has taken a toll on U.S. troops and families in South Korea and Italy, as commanders look to blunt the effects in the virus hot spots with closures and restrictive policies.
At least six cases of the virus have been reported in and around the U.S. Army’s Daegu garrison in South Korea, officials said. Daegu is the epicenter of South Korea’s outbreak, which includes more than 40 deaths. The garrison cases involve a soldier and his wife, along with Army civilians and dependents.
Col. Edward Ballanco, commander of the Daegu garrison, took to Facebook Live on Wednesday to admonish two unnamed military dependents who ignored recommendations to avoid stores and restaurants outside the base.
The city has about 500 new cases of coronavirus a day, Ballanco said, and he threatened to block base access to those who ignore his warnings. Comings and goings have been electronically monitored, he added.
“As soon as it gets into our bubble, our community, then we will have an outbreak,” Ballanco said, telling soldiers and civilians on the base to limit travel to between their homes and the installation.
In Italy, military families are entering a third week of school and day-care closures, Stars and Stripes reported, as an unspecified number of U.S. troops have been quarantined following travel to and from their duty stations.
Italy has closed all schools and universities until March 15. Military officials have followed the lead of host nations in shutting institutions, even for schools on their bases.
Airlines could suffer up to $113 billion in lost revenue due to coronavirus crisis, IATA says
The passenger airline business could suffer losses between $63 billion and $113 billion because of the novel coronavirus, depending on the severity and length of the outbreak, the International Air Transport Association said in an updated analysis published Thursday.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO, said the outbreak amounts to a “crisis” for the industry.
The IATA had published on Feb. 20 an estimate that lost revenue would hit $29.3 billion, but that was based on a scenario confining the fallout to markets associated with China. “Since that time, the virus has spread to over 80 countries and forward bookings have been severely impacted on routes beyond China,” the industry body said.
Airlines around the world have begun canceling flights due to lower demand and complicated travel restrictions amid the coronavirus outbreak, with airlines outside Asia suffering amid a global pullback.
On Thursday, Norwegian Air announced it would cancel 22 long-haul routes linking Europe and the United States, between March 28 and May 5. Flybe, a British regional airline, grounded all flights and entered bankruptcy protection on Thursday, although the airline had been struggling before the novel coronavirus outbreak began.
Soon after, Germany’s Lufthansa reported it was canceling over 7,000 European flights in March. Most of the canceled flights are internal flights or trips to Italy, but the airliner is also canceling flights to Israel, which has imposed travel restrictions on visitors from Germany.
The two main airlines in the United Arab Emirates, Etihad and Emirates, have asked employees to move up leave in light of the slowdown in business. Emirates even suggested that employees take unpaid leave for up to a month at a time because of “the availability of additional resources,” according to Chief Operating Officer Adel al-Redha.
IATA said the range of its newest estimate was based on different scenarios, with the lower estimate reflecting the costs if coronavirus is contained in current markets with over 100 cases as of March 2, and the higher end if the outbreak spreads further.
The analysis noted that financial markets were already pricing in a shock to industry revenue greater than its worst prediction, with airline share prices falling nearly 25 percent since the outbreak began.
Although falling oil prices may help airlines offset some of the cost, IATA suggested the industry would need government help.
“Governments must take note. Airlines are doing their best to stay afloat as they perform the vital task of linking the world’s economies. As governments look to stimulus measures, the airline industry will need consideration for relief on taxes, charges and slot allocation,” de Juniac said.
Egypt confirms first coronavirus case involving a citizen
Egypt’s Health Ministry confirmed a case of the novel coronavirus in an Egyptian national, state-owned media reported Thursday, marking the third case in the country but the first to affect a citizen.
The Egyptian patient is a 44-year-old man who recently returned from a trip to Serbia that included a 12-hour transit through France, Egyptian state-owned outlet Al-Ahram reported. He will be kept in isolation at a hospital.
The latest diagnosis was announced as more cases continued to pop up around North Africa. In Algeria, at least 17 cases have been confirmed in recent days. Last week, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed acknowledged that the spread of the virus in her country is probably inevitable but said it can be contained with proper efforts.
“It is not shameful for a country to have infections. The shame is in the inability to manage them,” she told the television channel MBC Masr.
Two more people hospitalized with covid-19 in New York City
NEW YORK — Two people, a man and woman, with confirmed covid-19 have been hospitalized in intensive care units in New York City, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement Thursday morning, raising the state’s total to 13 cases.
The man, in his 40s, and the woman, in her 80s, had not traveled abroad and were not connected to other New Yorkers diagnosed with covid-19, officials said.
New York City’s disease detectives were identifying the patients’ close contacts to determine who else should be tested or isolated. About two dozen people have tested negative for the virus in the city.
“We urgently need the CDC to increase our supply of covid-19 test kits and expedite the approval of any testing approaches developed by private companies,” de Blasio said.
Coronavirus fears prompt Israel to consider barring West Bank Palestinians from praying at al-Aqsa Mosque
JERUSALEM — Citing coronavirus fears, Israeli Public Security Minister Gilan Erdan asked the country’s National Security Council on Thursday to consider barring Palestinian worshipers from the occupied West Bank from entering Jerusalem on Friday for weekly prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque.
The sensitive site, which Jews refer to as the Temple Mount, is managed in a special arrangement between Israel and Jordan’s Wakf Islamic trust. Any changes to that arrangement are highly controversial and have sparked violence in the past.
Friday prayers usually draw between 20,000 and 30,000 pious Muslims, most of them coming from Jerusalem and northern Israel. About 4,000 Palestinians from the West Bank enter Jerusalem with special permits.
The director of al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, told The Washington Post on Thursday that prayers were expected to take place as usual. He said the Wakf has asked worshipers to wear face masks and wash their hands before entering the area. Elderly people or those suffering from chronic illnesses were warned to stay away, he said.
Kiswani said the prayer service would be shorter than usual and that the mosque would be sterilized before and after the prayers.
Israel’s senior defense and military officials were expected to meet later Thursday to discuss how to handle the matter.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Health Ministry ordered the cancellation of all public events with more than 5,000 people. The Palestinian Authority also warned against gatherings of more than 1,000 people in open spaces and 100 people in enclosed areas.
On Thursday, after the first reports of individuals with the coronavirus were confirmed, the Palestinian Health Ministry also ordered some mosques and churches closed. The order banned tourists from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, revered by Christians as marking the site where Jesus was born.
Sufian Taha contributed to this report.
Turkish Airlines plane forced to fly back to Istanbul from Singapore empty, after passenger tests positive for virus
A Turkish Airlines plane was grounded in Singapore and forced to fly back to Istanbul empty, after one passenger who had traveled to Singapore on the same plane was confirmed to have coronavirus.
“Our plane returned without a passenger. The crew will be kept under surveillance for 14 days,” Fahrettin Koca, the Turkish Minister of Health, confirmed on Twitter.
Turkish Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
According to the Straits Times, 200 passengers were affected by the decision to allow no passengers to board the plane on its way back to Istanbul.
In a statement, the Singaporean Transport Ministry confirmed that “Turkish Airlines flight TK55 did not take off from Changi Airport last evening (4 March 2020) at its scheduled departure time at 2335 hrs.”
Authorities had started “contact tracing for flight passengers who may have had contact with the case while the case was infectious,” the ministry added.
Federal employees who travel to high-risk areas abroad should be quarantined for 14 days, personnel agency says
Federal employees with symptoms consistent with coronavirus infection should stay home — or be sent home — from work, and those who have traveled to high-risk areas abroad should be quarantined for 14 days after returning, the federal government’s central personnel agency has said.
The Office of Personnel Management further told agencies to consider cutting back on travel and to tighten controls over visitors to federal buildings.
Those actions, outlined in a memo issued late Tuesday, are consistent with the practices previously announced by many private-sector employers.
“Employees who have symptoms of acute respiratory illness are recommended to stay home and not come to work until they are free of fever (100.4° F [37.8° C] or greater using an oral thermometer), signs of a fever, and any other symptoms for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g. cough suppressants). Employees should notify their supervisor and stay home if they are sick,” the memo said.
It also cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that employees “who appear to have acute respiratory illness symptoms (i.e. cough, shortness of breath) upon arrival to work or become sick during the day should be separated from other employees and be sent home immediately.”
Agencies meanwhile are to review their emergency operations plans “and continue their preparations since this is an emerging, rapidly evolving situation,” it said.
Agencies also are to “review their travel policies and begin to reduce nonessential travel as appropriate.” Employees planning domestic travel should consult CDC information and “take into consideration the location and purpose of their travel,” it added.
Southwest Airlines could lose more than $200 million as demand plummets
Southwest Airlines is bracing for a market pummeling over the coronavirus, the company said Thursday, with anticipated losses between $200 million and $300 million of operating revenue in its first quarter alone.
The Dallas-based airline pointed to a free fall in customer demand and a spike in trip cancellations, Reuters reported, as potential fliers rethink their time spent in confined spaces.
Southwest does not fly to Europe or Asia, the company said Monday, and its flights do not go anywhere with current travel restrictions.
Other airlines face similar pains. United will scale back its international flights in April by 20 percent, and Jet Blue is eyeing its expenses and personnel costs.
Worldwide, the airline industry stands to lose between $63 billion and $113 billion, depending on the severity and length of the outbreak, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in an updated analysis published Thursday.
South Africa confirms first covid-19 case in the southern African region
South Africa’s health minister, Zweli Mkhize, announced the country’s first covid-19 case on Thursday afternoon, marking the first confirmed case in the southern African region.
The patient is a 38-year-old man who traveled to Italy with his wife. He and the doctor who treated him have been in self-isolation for two days. He was part of a group of 10 people who had traveled to Italy together and returned to South Africa on March 1.
Mkhize said that a “tracer team” has been sent to the province of KwaZulu-Natal, on South Africa’s eastern coast and home to the city of Durban, to follow up with the contacts of the patient and his doctor.
South Africa has the most advanced health-care system in sub-Saharan Africa.
Confirmed cases have been slow to rise on the African continent, with the largest outbreak in Algeria, which currently has 17 cases, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Africa CDC. Other African countries with confirmed cases include Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.
Egypt also recorded its first case in a citizen, who returned from a trip abroad to Serbia, the Health Ministry said Thursday. The previous two recorded cases involved foreigners.
U.S. markets flash across-the-board declines as coronavirus outlook worsens
As the coronavirus upends more aspects of life in the United States, Wall Street’s only certainty is this: The uncertainty will continue.
The Dow Jones industrial average is poised to drop more than 450 points when markets open Thursday, reversing course after Wednesday’s eye-popping rally that saw investors applaud Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victories and the likelihood of a moderate option to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was the second rally this week in which the blue-chip index rose more than 4 percent. And just like before, investor euphoria quickly gave way to more jitters — and more losses.
“We are expecting more dramatic market swings up and down and would not be surprised if we test last Friday’s lows again,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management, which manages $62 billion, in an email. “Volatility will be with us for a considerable period, given the election cycle and COVID-19. We expect that economic data over the next two to three months will get worse before it gets better."
Global travel is plummeting as event cancellations and travel restrictions mount, delivering a brutal blow to tourism, aviation, cruises and the hospitality industry. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fluctuated before falling flat in early trading, as investors anticipated two days of OPEC meetings where the organization will consider trimming oil output in the face of cratering demand caused by the coronavirus.
‘Don’t touch your face,’ warn public officials seconds before touching their faces
To prevent catching the novel coronavirus, do as public health officials say, not as they do. That means not touching your face. The advice is simple, but the task is herculean, even for those dispensing it.
Sara Cody, public health director for Santa Clara County, Calif., slipped up at a news conference Friday, for example. “Start working on not touching your face,” she said.
Less than a minute later, she raised hand to mouth and licked her finger to turn a page in her notes. As of early Thursday, almost 4.5 million people had watched the clip shared on Twitter.
That same day in Washington, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) scratched her nose and repeatedly brushed her hair away from her face while answering reporters’ questions at a news conference on covid-19 precautions.
The trend continued Wednesday when Debbie Birx, coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, and Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who have both stressed the importance of the no-touching-your-face rule, touched their faces during a covid-19 task force briefing with President Trump.
“I haven’t touched my face in weeks — in weeks,” Trump jokingly said during the briefing. “I miss it.”
But as many people pointed out on Twitter, Trump has been caught on camera touching his face several times in recent days.
And who can blame him? Touching your face feels as natural as blinking. In 2015, researchers observed a class of medical students during a lecture in which they averaged 24 face touches an hour.
Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity shut down for two weeks
JERUSALEM — The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem will close its doors to visitors for at least two weeks starting Thursday, as the city revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ steps up its response to new cases of coronavirus infection.
Officials ordered hotels in Bethlehem to stop booking tourists and groups from outside the West Bank as they investigate the extent of the possible spread of infection. Four people from Greece on a tour group were diagnosed with the virus Thursday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The church, built over the purported spot of Jesus’ birth, is popular with religious pilgrims and would normally be entering a busy tourist season in the month before Easter.
It is the most famous of the city’s many houses of worship — churches and mosques alike — that were all closed by local authorities based on recommendations by the health ministry.
Authorities also closed schools in Bethlehem and Jericho and canceled sporting events, including the Bethlehem Marathon scheduled for late March.
Reached by phone, a manager at the popular Jacir Palace Hotel in Bethlehem said it had just canceled the reservations of 50 guests scheduled to arrive in the coming days.
Balousha reported from Gaza City.
Britain largely moves to second stage of coronavirus plan; top medical official says some lawmakers may be advised to avoid Parliament
England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told a committee of lawmakers Thursday that the country has mainly moved from the first stage — containment — to the second stage of the country’s four-part plan to confront the coronavirus.
In an implicit acknowledgment that the virus may no longer be containable, the government increasingly focuses on trying to delay the peak of the virus until the spring and summer months. In summer, hospitals are less busy with caring for patients who suffer from the seasonal flu. Delaying the peak would also give researchers and medical facilities more time to prepare in general.
The last two steps of the plan — to carry out related research and mitigate the impact of the outbreak — were already underway in parallel.
“As time goes by, we then may start to move into the more socially determined actions,” Whitty said, according to Reuters.
Whitty warned that recommendations to restrict some people’s movements to slow the spread of the virus may also affect some lawmakers.
“[We] may make some advice for people who are older citizens and people who have preexisting health conditions to avoid crowded areas . . . which might include this area,” Whitty said, according to Reuters, addressing the members of Parliament.
As of Thursday morning, the United Kingdom had 90 confirmed coronavirus cases.
On Tuesday, the British government cautioned that under a “reasonable worst-case scenario,” a fifth of all workers in the country could be forced to stay away from their jobs in the coming months due to illness. The British government’s response plan included potential school closings or bans on public gatherings above a certain threshold.
Meanwhile, UK Finance, a financial sector industry body, said banks could potentially increase customers’ overdraft limits or facilitate mortgage repayment relief, among other measures to mitigate the virus’s impact on the British economy, according to Sky News.
New Delhi shuts down primary schools to contain virus spread
NEW DELHI — The government of India’s capital ordered the closure Thursday of all primary schools up to fifth grade through March 31.
At the same time, India confirmed its 30th case of the coronavirus, as increasingly concerned authorities stepped up efforts to stem its spread in this country of 1.3 billion.
“As a precautionary measure to prevent the possibility of spread of COVID-19 amongst our children, Delhi Government has directed immediate closure of all primary schools,” Manish Sisodia, the minister of education said in a tweet.
India and the European Union have called off a summit in mid-March, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be traveling to Brussels, reported the Indian Express.
The central government has sent a medical team to Qom in Iran, site of one of the worst outbreaks in the world, to start a screening process and work on the logistics of evacuating Indian nationals.
In a span of two days, India has implemented drastic new restrictions on foreign travelers. On Tuesday, it suspended visas for travelers from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan, in addition to those from China.
On Thursday, it announced that people traveling from or having visited Italy and South Korea would need to certify they have tested negative for covid-19. A group of Italian tourists in Rajasthan was also sent to the airport and asked to leave the country this week, according to a member of the group.
Beijing’s new coronavirus rules: Eat on your own, keep away from co-workers and cover your coughs
BEIJING — Authorities in China’s capital have new guidelines for controlling the novel coronavirus as the outbreak slows down: only one diner per table in restaurants, stay away from your co-workers, cover your nose and mouth when you cough, and if you are sick, please wear a mask.
Sun Xingui, an official from Beijing’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday that the city was recommending that restaurants keep tables spaced out and allow only a single diner at each one. Restaurants are also asked to test diners’ body temperatures before they enter.
“Save the communication and concentrate on eating food,” Sun, speaking at a news conference, advised diners.
Meanwhile, as more companies gradually resume work, workplace rules are changing. Each employee must have at least 2.5 square meters of workspace in the office — nearly 27 square feet — and there must be no less than a meter (about three feet) between colleagues, Sun said. Meetings should be reduced to the minimum level, he added, and video conferencing is recommended as an option.
Beijing’s municipal civilization promotion office, which oversees citizens’ public behavior, also brought up new proposals to regulate people’s hygiene habits during and after the epidemic.
Teng Shengping, deputy director of the publicity department, said at the same news conference on Thursday that her office has been planning to add etiquette for coughing to the city’s civilization behavior guidelines, a set of citywide rules that aim to control behavior such as the famous bared midriffs of the “Beijing bikini.”
“Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue, handkerchief or elbow when you cough and sneeze,” Teng said, citing examples of suggested public manners. “Those who have a cold or carry respiratory illness should wear a mask,” she added.
Beijing had reported 418 infections by the end of Wednesday, with 13 of the capital’s 16 districts having zero new cases for the last two weeks.
Bishops halt Mass in northern Italy amid virus fears
ROME — Italy’s national bishops’ organization on Thursday ordered a halt to Masses for a week in the northern regions of the country that are at the center of a mounting coronavirus outbreak.
The bishops’ decision follows a government decree a day earlier that called for the suspension of most large group activities and the shuttering of all schools until mid-March.
The bishops’ statement said the decision was made based on a “comparison” with the government. The church said it was “uneasy” about the measures but that they were being adopted as a way to “contain the spread of the virus.”
The measures apply to the regions of Veneto, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, as well as parts of two other areas in the north.
The move is a striking sign in one of the world’s most heavily Catholic countries about the extent to which daily life is being upended amid health concerns and precautions. So far 3,089 cases have been reported in Italy, with 107 deaths.
Reuters described the step as “unprecedented,” noting that even during the plague, Masses were not canceled. Mass-going tends to be more common in Italy’s south, but even so, roughly one-quarter of Italians in the northern regions go to church at least once a week.
Iran announces mobilization campaign, including school closings, as virus death toll hits 107
Iran launched a national mobilization campaign Thursday to track and slow the spread of the coronavirus, including closing schools for the next two weeks, as the Health Ministry announced 591 new cases and 15 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The fatalities push Iran’s death toll from the virus to 107 out of 3,513 known cases of infection.
Health Minister Saeed Namaki said the country would institute a range of measures, including shuttering schools and universities until at least March 20 and setting up checkpoints to block nonessential travel between cities. There will also be an attempt to discourage the use of paper money and prohibit drivers from pumping their own gas.
Government agencies across the country would join in efforts to identify all infected residents, Namaki said at a news conference, but governmental meetings will be held by teleconference unless face-to-face gatherings were essential.
“We will only hold meetings physically if it is extremely necessary,” Namaki said.
Speaking at a ceremony in Kerman province, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, pledged that Iran would prevail in its fight to control the virus, which he blamed on the United States.
“Today the country is engaged in a biological battle,” Salami said, according to a translation of his address by the Iranian Students’ News Agency. “We will win, even in the fight against the virus, which may be the product of the American biological invasion that first spread to China and then to Iran and other parts of the world.”
Pets probably can’t spread coronavirus, so please don’t abandon them, Hong Kong tells residents
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s government had a message for the city’s animal lovers: No, your pets probably can’t get the novel coronavirus, so please do not abandon them.
The message, from Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, was posted on Facebook on Thursday along with a cartoon image of a family with a bandanna-wearing dog.
“There is currently no evidence that pet animals can be a source of infection of COVID-19 or that they become sick,” a spokesman said in an accompanying news release, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The public announcement comes a week after Hong Kong announced it had found a pet dog that tested a weak positive for the virus.
Although the dog did not display any symptoms, it was moved to a quarantine facility for animals at the Hong Kong port. An unnamed spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that all pets confirmed to have the coronavirus should be placed under quarantine.
That notice, posted Friday, appears to have sparked debate about whether pets can infect humans. It is believed that the ongoing coronavirus outbreak began in bats but may have spread to another wild mammal before reaching humans.
However, experts from bodies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Organization for Animal Health have said there is no evidence that the outbreak can spread via pets.
In its Facebook statement on Thursday, the Fisheries and Conservation Department noted that the dog quarantined last week was 17 years old and already had a chronic illness that complicated his case. But the department said the city was taking care of him and it would do so for other animals.
Pet owners were advised that they should avoid kissing their animals, should wash their hands after touching them, and that anyone sick should avoid contact with animals altogether.
“Important things need to be said thrice,” the statement said. “Don’t abandon your pets. Don’t abandon your pets. Don’t abandon your pets.”
Coronavirus anxiety is spreading in tandem with the outbreak
America this week began to consider the existential threat of a doorknob. The horror of a touch-screen in the self-checkout lane. The inescapable doom that accompanies any trip on public transportation. The realization of how much, exactly, we all touch our faces each day: constantly.
Last week, you pressed elevator buttons with abandon. You weren’t afraid of the free weights in the gym. You washed your hands for barely enough time to say “Happy Birthday” once, let alone sing it twice.
How bold are you now?
The coronavirus that causes the disease covid-19, which originated in China and recently arrived in the United States, has already transformed our personal worlds. A subway pole is now a memento mori. An itchy eye is a trap. A cough is a harbinger.
As if there weren’t enough to be anxious about.
“This may be, for some individuals, the stressor that tips them over the edge,” said Lynn Bufka, a clinical psychologist and the senior director of practice, research and policy for the American Psychological Association.
Read more here: Coronavirus anxiety is everywhere, and there is no cure
Amazon tells Seattle employees to work from home all month
All Amazon employees in the Seattle area should work from home until the end of March if they are able to do so, the tech giant told them, as the region grapples with an outbreak of the new coronavirus.
The company sent an email to employees late Wednesday evening with an adjusted plan based on guidance from local health officials, according to GeekWire. King County, Wash., which includes Amazon campuses in Seattle and Bellevue, has reported more cases than anywhere else in the country — including nearly all of the 11 deaths so far.
Amazon, which employs more than 50,000 people in the region, confirmed on Tuesday that one of its Seattle employees there had tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and was under quarantine. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
On Wednesday, Microsoft, a fellow Seattle-based tech company, instructed its employees to work from home through March 25.
Last week, Amazon told its employees to postpone all “non-essential” travel, both domestic and abroad.
German cases spike as Switzerland confirms first coronavirus death
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany jumped by 109 — a nearly 50 percent increase — in the past 24 hours, the German government disease control agency announced Thursday.
The total in Germany has now reached 349 cases, the largest outbreak cluster in Europe outside northern Italy, the virus’s principal European foothold.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, a government agency responsible for disease control and prevention, there are cases of coronavirus in all but one of Germany’s 16 federal states.
The region with the most cases was the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Koch institute reported, which also happens to be Germany’s most populous region.
On Thursday, Switzerland confirmed its first death from the virus: a 74-year-old woman from the Vaud canton, according to a statement from Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health.
As of Wednesday evening, Switzerland has confirmed 58 cases of the virus in total.
School district at center of outbreak near Seattle closes for up to two weeks
A school district north of Seattle at the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak will be closed starting Thursday for up to two weeks.
Northshore School District, one of Washington state’s largest, will transition its classes to “online learning,” Superintendent Michelle Reid wrote in a letter to families Wednesday night, after a parent volunteer tested positive for the virus and panic set in over possible exposure. One-fifth of students had stayed home Wednesday — many in a self-imposed quarantine.
“I have spent the past few weeks researching and monitoring the rapidly changing COVID-19 coronavirus,” Reid wrote to families. “Now, I believe that the time has come for our district community to make an important shift.”
Northshore, one of Washington state’s largest districts, had previously closed individual schools for cleaning as they awaited test results for students and staff members who had been experiencing symptoms.
But as more than two dozen of the district’s schools reported possible exposure, Reid said she wanted to be mindful of older district employees who are at a higher risk from the novel coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19.
Some have questioned how virus-prompted closures may disproportionately impact lower-income students. Northshore will be loaning computers and Internet hotspots to those without them, although Reid said the district is still working out plans to help families who rely on free or reduced lunch and child care.
As the virus has spread throughout the Seattle area, so too have news of closures — both real and fake.
Seattle’s school district has postponed all out-of-state travel for students through the end of the year, the Seattle Times reported. And Bellevue, just east of Seattle, officials said an impersonator had sent out a false announcement claiming that schools would also be closed.
China is subtly stoking coronavirus conspiracy theories that blame the U.S. for outbreak
BEIJING — As new coronavirus cases and the sense of panic ebb in China, the country that was first struck by the coronavirus has been gripped by a wave of nationalist pride, conspiracy theories, and a perennial mix of anti-American sentiments: suspicion, superiority, schadenfreude.
Weeks after China’s government came under scrutiny over whether its mismanagement unleashed the coronavirus on the world, officials in Beijing and many ordinary Chinese appear relieved — even happy — to turn the tables and call out missteps in Italy, South Korea, and particularly a Trump administration that has been roiled by a chaotic response to the gathering crisis.
In recent days, run-of-the-mill mockery of the White House has taken a darker turn as the Chinese Internet became inundated by the theory, subtly stoked by the Chinese government, that the coronavirus originated in the United States. The U.S. government, one version of the theory goes, has been covering up mounting cases, and perhaps thousands of deaths, by classifying them as regular flu.
While conspiracy theories pervade the Internet in every country, the sudden surge and overwhelming prevalence of anti-U.S. rhetoric this week has been conspicuous and significant in the context of China, where censors typically scrub speech that strays out-of-bounds and police quickly detain those deemed to be spreading rumors.
Read more here on how China is happy to muddy the waters if it means shifting blame away from its Communist leaders.
Greek tourists found to have coronavirus in Bethlehem
JERUSALEM — A group of Greek tourists visiting Bethlehem were found to have the novel coronavirus, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced Thursday.
Before their diagnosis, no cases of the coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19 had been confirmed in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. But thousands of Palestinians work and seek medical care in Israel, where some 50,000 citizens were ordered quarantined Wednesday.
The rest of the guests and all the staff of the Greek tourists’ Bethlehem hotel have been put under quarantine.
The Palestinian Authority announced tough new steps Thursday to stop the virus’s spread, including closing educational institutions for the next 14 days and a ban on gatherings in mosques and churches in the Bethlehem area, Jericho and the Jordan Valley.
On Wednesday, examinations at the crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, where there is one case so far, were announced. Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, earlier adopted similar measures at the crossing from Egypt into the Palestinian enclave.
All those returning from high-risk countries will be required to enter self-isolation for 14 days.
The Palestinian Authority also announced the prohibition of gatherings of more than 1,000 people in open areas, more than 50 people in enclosed spaces and the postponing of all international conferences scheduled to take place in the Palestinian territories.
In addition, the ministry said that Palestinian officials would be prohibited from flying overseas and all military courses abroad were suspended until further notice.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said the tourists were from South Korea.
Balousha reported from Gaza.
Coronavirus has put nearly 300 million kids out of school, U.N. agency warns
More than 290 million students from prekindergarten through 12th grade globally have had their education disrupted by school closures amid the continuing spread of a new coronavirus, a figure one United Nations agency dealing with the crisis says is unprecedented.
As of Wednesday, 11 countries and the semiautonomous Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao had shut all schools, affecting 290.5 million children, according to UNESCO. Italy said Wednesday it was closing all schools after more than 105 people there died of the virus, joining countries including China and Japan.
Other countries implemented localized school closures, and if those countries were to order nationwide closures, 180 million more children would be out of school on three continents, UNESCO said.
Read more here.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un sends letter offering support for South Koreans amid coronavirus
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a letter to his counterpart in South Korea, Moon Jae-in, in which he offered support for the fight against coronavirus, Moon’s office announced Thursday.
Paraphrasing the letter, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said that Kim had “conveyed his message of comfort to the South Korean people who are battling against the outbreak of covid-19, and expressed his confidence that they will prevail in this fight without fail,” referring to the disease that is caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Kim said that he hoped for good health of the South Korean people and added that he was “worried about President Moon’s health” and expressed frustration that he could not help, according to an unofficial translation released by the Blue House.
The North Korean leader also “expressed his candid thoughts and positions on the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula." The Blue House said the letter was received on Wednesday and that Moon had expressed his gratitude in a letter on Thursday.
South Korea has the most cases of confirmed novel coronavirus cases outside of China, with nearly 6,000 cases and a death toll nearing 40. The country has tested its population widely, with roughly 10,000 tests conducted most days.
North Korea has not released information about possible cases, instead insisting it has none, but some health experts worry that the poor and isolated nation may struggle if an outbreak becomes widespread. North Korea has a feeble health system and it has experienced widespread malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis.
Min Joo Kim contributed reporting
Tokyo Olympics still on despite virus fears, officials say
The Tokyo Olympics will go ahead as planned, Olympic officials said, despite fears about the spreading coronavirus and whether it might delay the Summer Games.
Thomas Bach, president of the Olympic International Committee, said Wednesday his organization remains “fully committed” to Tokyo 2020, and leaders had not discussed postponing or canceling the games at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
While the IOC would “not add fuel to the flame of speculation,” Bach said, he added that “quota allocations” could be put in place for some sports if the virus keeps some athletes from competing in qualifying events over the coming months.
‘I can tell you in the meeting of the IOC Executive Board (that) neither the word 'cancellation' nor the word 'postponement' was even mentioned,’ said IOC President Thomas Bach, on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics https://t.co/PvhwuMslTp pic.twitter.com/rJOkpyehO1
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 5, 2020
His remarks were echoed by Japan’s Olympics Minister, Seiko Hashimoto, who appeared to retreat from her comments this week that the event might be postponed until later this year. Japan is still preparing for the Summer Games as planned, she said, with more than 4.5 million tickets sold domestically.
“Cancellation or delay of the games would be unacceptable for the athletes,” Hashimoto said Thursday, according to Reuters. “An environment where athletes can feel at ease and focus should be firmly prepared.”
Hashimoto said that Japanese organizers and the IOC would continue to work together closely to monitor the outbreak, Reuters reported, as they also consult with the World Health Organization.
The outbreak may nonetheless impact the Olympic torch relay, which will kick off next week in Greece. One IOC member, Dick Pound, had previously said the committee would have to “reluctantly” cancel the Tokyo Games if the coronavirus became a serious pandemic.
But the strongest declaration in support of the Olympics perhaps came from IOC spokesman Mark Adams. At a news conference in Lausanne, reporters asked him whether there was a specific date by which the committee must decide to cancel or delay the event.
“No, we’ve made a decision,” he said. “And the decision is that the Games go ahead.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Japan canceled due to coronavirus
Japan and China have agreed to postpone Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Japan as both countries battle the coronavirus outbreak, Japanese media reported on Thursday.
The visit had been scheduled for early April. Public broadcaster NHK reports it was canceled due to concerns about the epidemic.
Xi’s visit was a major event on the East Asian diplomatic calendar. No Chinese president had visited Japan as a state guest since 2008; Xi was due to meet both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the new Japanese Emperor Naruhito.
Some conservative members of Abe’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, had called for the trip to be canceled for political reasons, Kyodo news agency reported, with the hawks pointing to China’s treatment of pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong and Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.
But the trip was instead called off due to fears over the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1,000 people in Japan and more than 80,000 in China. Politburo member and top diplomat Yang Jiechi had visited Japan over the weekend to discuss the matter.
The news of the trip’s cancellation comes as Japan looked set to announce strict new measures for visitors from countries with large coronavirus outbreaks like China and South Korea. Japan was planning to cancel visas already issued for visitors from both countries, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, and require all visitors from the nations to undergo a two-week quarantine.
After the news that the trip was postponed broke across Japanese media, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the trip would be rescheduled.
“After negotiation, both sides agreed that we will maintain close communication on the timing of the visit,” spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Thursday.
Liu Yang contributed reporting
Iraq’s total fatalities from coronavirus rise to 3
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s coronavirus death toll rose Thursday to three as the number of diagnosed cases is steadily increasing.
The Health Ministry said that Saif Al-Badr, 65, died in the capital, Baghdad. Earlier in the day, a woman and an elderly cleric had also been pronounced dead from the novel coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19.
Iraqi authorities say that 36 cases have been detected in just over a week. Most patients had recently visited neighboring Iran, the site of one the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. But doctors warn that other potential sufferers may not be coming forward, fearing stigma or the conditions they may face in quarantine.
Iraq’s health system had been crippled by decades of mismanagement and underfunding, even before the virus arrived here. Several patients have posted videos to social media from their quarantine rooms, with one appearing to have no running water and a squat toilet.
Travel hub United Arab Emirates tells residents not to travel
DUBAI — Officials in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday advised the nearly 10 million citizens and residents of this wealthy gulf state to avoid travel in light of the global coronavirus outbreak.
Like many of its neighbors, the UAE has a massive foreign worker presence, with almost 90 percent of the population not citizens. Those who leave will face medical checks at the airport upon return and home quarantines “until being assured of the patient’s safety,” depending on their travel history, the Health Ministry said. Those found to be infected will be quarantined in health facilities to “avoid mixing with others.”
The UAE is a major travel hub, home to two major international airlines, Etihad and Emirates, and Dubai airport, one of the world’s busiest. There are 28 reported cases of the virus in the country, nearly all of them involving visitors.
On Wednesday, authorities reported a 16-year-old student at an Indian school in Dubai had tested positive for the virus. Her parents had recently returned from an overseas trip.
The UAE was the first place in the Middle East to report cases of the virus in tourists visiting from China, but since then there have been some 3,000 cases announced in neighboring Iran.
The government has announced various measures to combat the spread, including closing schools for four weeks and sterilizing them, as well as cleaning all mosques. Concerts and other events have also been canceled.
Cases in the UAE could increase with the arrival of 215 students from Arab countries evacuated from Wuhan city, the Chinese epicenter of the outbreak. The evacuees are now housed in the newly built Humanitarian City for a 14-day quarantine period while they are tested for the virus.
Australia bans entry to travelers from South Korea
Australia announced Thursday that it would temporarily ban arrivals from South Korea, prompting criticism from officials in Seoul.
In a statement on Facebook, the Australian Embassy in South Korea said that the decision was made due to “evidence of a heightened risk of sustained local transmission of coronavirus (covid-19) in the Republic of Korea” and said it would be reviewed a week after going into force.
*UPDATE In response to evidence of a heightened risk of sustained local transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the...
Posted by Australia in the Republic of Korea on Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Australian citizens, permanent residents and their families are exempt from the ban but would be required to self-isolate for 14 days after entering Australia.
The new travel curbs drew criticism from officials in Seoul, with South Korea’s foreign ministry voicing “strong regrets” over the measures and saying they had not been consulted, Yonhap News reported.
Some 96 countries have imposed some form of restriction on visitors from South Korea, according to the Foreign Ministry.
Australia had already imposed similar measures on visitors from China and Iran, but so far it is only asking for advanced screening measures from travelers from Italy.
“The reason we have taken this decision is because of the high level of visitation we are seeing from Korea, than we have seen come from Italy, and the ability to immediately put in place the enhanced screening measures for Italy,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday.
“To do that [for] Korea would be far more difficult ... so that ban is put in place because it affords the best protection and enables us to slow down the rate of transmission,” Morrison said, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
On Thursday, South Korean officials announced 438 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the nation’s total number of confirmed infections to 5,766. Australia currently has 55 confirmed cases.
U.S. death toll reaches 11, including first fatality outside Washington state
The death toll of the novel coronavirus reached 11 in the United States on Wednesday as the epidemic spread, resulting in the first fatality outside of Washington state, that of a 71-year-old in northern California.
As of Wednesday evening, health officials had reported at least 153 cases of the virus across the country, including 45 people who had been on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. Most domestic deaths so far have been linked to a nursing home near Seattle.
While no additional states reported patients on Wednesday, both New York and California experienced serious upticks in the spread of the virus. Health officials confirmed nine more cases in New York and six in Los Angeles County, which has also declared a local health emergency.
Elsewhere in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced a state of emergency while asking that another cruise ship be held off its coast. The vessel had recently carried several coronavirus patients, including the 71-year-old who died, and Newsom said he wanted passengers and crew members to undergo testing first.
Meanwhile, hospitals and public health labs are bracing for the impact of the growing outbreak.
Following a declaration from Vice President Pence earlier this week that any American can get tested with a doctor’s order, 60 labs are now running the test for the novel coronavirus. That capacity is expected to increase as more labs come online and private companies ship thousands of test kits, but CDC guidelines have nonetheless created panic.
In Kirkland, Wash., which has emerged as center of the epidemic, Pence’s order has become a rallying cry: Some residents with even mild symptoms of a common cold are demanding a coronavirus test, as others elsewhere in the country say they have not been able to get tested at all.
Many hospitals and doctors, meanwhile, have been forced improvise emergency plans daily without a clear sense of how bad the crisis will become. Doctors in Rhode Island have been testing patients in a hospital parking lot, officials in Washington state are buying a motel to house patients in isolation, and small hospitals in rural Texas worry they may not be able to reach central testing labs hours away.
Amid toilet paper shortages, Australian newspaper offers a practical solution: blank pages
With Australian supermarkets running out of toilet paper due to coronavirus-related hoarding, a newspaper in Australia has offered its own practical solution: blank pages.
The NT News, a tabloid newspaper that serves Darwin and the rest of the Northern Territory, printed eight blank sheets in its Thursday edition.
YES, WE ACTUALLY DID PRINT IT #toiletpapercrisis pic.twitter.com/jusP50ojYu
— The NT News (@TheNTNews) March 4, 2020
“Run out of loo paper? The NT News cares. That’s why we’ve printed an eight-page special liftout inside, complete with handy cut lines, for you to use in an emergency. Get your limited edition one-ply toilet newspaper sheets,” the newspaper states.
Founded in 1952 and now owned by billionaire media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, the NT News is famous for its irreverent house style and publicity stunts.
The move came after Australian shoppers cleared supermarket shelves of toilet paper earlier in the week, prompting criticism from the country’s top doctor.
“We are trying to reassure people that removing all of the lavatory paper from the shelves of supermarkets probably isn’t a proportionate or sensible thing to do at this time,” Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Some Australians praised the NT News on social media, suggesting it contrasted favorably with what politicians had been able to do. “Still doing more than the PM,” one user wrote on Twitter, tagging the account of the Australian leader Scott Morrison.
But others suggested that the outcome may not be so practical after all: Unlike toilet paper, newspaper is not designed to decompose in drainage.
“You do know you can’t put newspaper down the toilet - unless you want to call out the plumber,” one user responded to NT News.
Deaths in China from novel coronavirus top 3,000
HONG KONG — The number of deaths from the novel coronavirus outbreak in mainland China has topped 3,000, according to new official figures released Thursday.
China’s National Health Commission said there had been 139 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the previous 24 hours, along with 31 deaths. This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 80,409 and the cumulative death toll is 3,012.
The number of new cases found in China has been dropping and almost all new cases are in the locked-down province of Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak. Some 2,902 of China’s deaths have been in Hubei.
However, the country, which has the world’s largest population at 1.4 billion, has seen by far the most cases of the novel coronavirus.
The next-largest numbers of cases are found in South Korea, Italy and Iran.
How the coronavirus compares with the flu
For two months, global health and government officials have been trying to stem the coronavirus outbreak, quarantining citizens, locking down towns and creating triage protocols in hospitals where the contagious, deadly novel virus has taken root.
As of early March, the coronavirus outbreak had infected more than 90,000 people and killed more than 3,000 people globally, the majority of whom live in China, where the illness was first detected in December. More than 100 people in the United States have been diagnosed, including at least nine people who have died.
By comparison, influenza — known as the common flu — has infected as many as 45 million Americans since October and killed as many as 46,000, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both the coronavirus and influenza are respiratory illnesses. Both have similar symptoms. Both are contagious. Both can be deadly.
So why the nationwide coronavirus frenzy?
“Because it’s flashy and new,” said Melissa Nolan, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina, adding that there remain a lot of unknowns about just how severe a U.S. coronavirus outbreak could be.
The numbers only tell part of the story — largely because flu season has been going on longer than the coronavirus has existed and because researchers simply don’t have enough data yet to accurately assess which is more deadly. Further complicating health officials’ ability to control the spread of the coronavirus is that, unlike influenza, there is no vaccine for it.
The key difference between the novel coronavirus and influenza, Nolan said, is this: The flu is familiar and covid-19, the disease the coronavirus causes, is not.