Here are some significant developments:
- The White House is expected to urge Americans to begin wearing cloth masks or face coverings in public to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, in a reversal of its earlier recommendations, according to a federal official involved in the response.
- President Trump announced he signed the Defense Production Act to compel 3M to provide more N95 face masks for health-care workers.
- The Navy removed the captain of an aircraft carrier crippled by the coronavirus from his job on Thursday, two days after the officer’s unusually blunt letter warned that if the service did not remove sailors from the vessel more quickly, it would fail them.
- A record 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment last week, a stunning sign of an economic collapse triggered by the pandemic.
- Experts and Trump’s advisers doubt the accuracy of the task force’s projection that 240,000 deaths are possible in the U.S., because it has not provided the underlying data so others can assess its reliability.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the creation of a select bipartisan committee to oversee the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and its management of the new $2 trillion economic rescue package. Trump decried it as a “witch hunt” at the Thursday task force briefing.
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‘Smoke and mirrors’: Critics lambast Navy hospital ship sent to New York for treating only 20 patients
Such were the choice words many on social media had Thursday for the U.S.N.S. Comfort, a much-hyped Navy ship sent to Manhattan to relieve the city’s overburdened hospitals as they grapple with the coronavirus.
Yet of 1,000 available beds aboard the vessel, the New York Times revealed, only three patients had actually been allowed onboard. Strict rules were meant to keep coronavirus patients — or people with one of 49 other medical conditions — from being treated onboard, where an outbreak could spread quickly.
Later in the afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Navy told the Times that more patients had been moved to the ship. But by then, it was too late to stem the criticism.
By late Thursday night, “it has 3 patients” was trending on Twitter, as critics emerged to lambaste the ship.
“So the Comfort, sent with such hoopla to NYC a few days ago, is taking care of all of three patients,” wrote political commentator Bill Kristol. “But not to worry! Navy brass is on the job!”
So the Comfort, sent with such hoopla to NYC a few days ago, is taking care of all of three patients. But not to worry! Navy brass is on the job! They've relieved the captain who told the truth about COVID-19 aboard the Theodore Roosevelt of command.https://t.co/OsX5y4x1k8
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 3, 2020
Some targeted President Trump, who had traveled to Norfolk to see the ship off. Others went after the Navy, which had on Thursday also removed the captain of a virus-stricken aircraft carrier.
“A floating metaphor for Trump’s handling of #Corona,” wrote Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “In fact, for his presidency...no, make that his entire career...”
Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, pointed out that a nearly identical situation played out after Hurricane Maria. The Comfort, sent to relieve the U.S. territory’s hospitals, only treated a few patients daily.
“We know this story too well,” she tweeted. “This happened in Puerto Rico right after María. The exact same thing.”
Federal small business loan program faces rocky start as bankers pump the breaks
The day before the scheduled launch of the federal government’s massive new small business lending program, banks being tapped to dole out the money questioned whether it was ready to launch.
The $349 billion program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program, is a key element of the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package passed by Congress last week. Administration officials have said money from the emergency loan fund would start flowing to small businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak Friday, delivering a sharply streamlined, same-day approval process unheard of in the history of federally backed small business lending.
But JPMorgan Chase, the country’s largest lender, said Thursday it did not expect to begin accepting applications for the program Friday, as scheduled. Other banks said they were accepting applications but didn’t expect to process or approve them until after the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration finalized rules for the program.
Some banking officials have warned that the abbreviated review process ― which allows borrowers to attest to their own eligibility without the government’s approval ― will make the program a magnet for fraud. Although the SBA will be able to audit lenders and borrowers later, it will fall primarily to private bankers to make decisions about who should receive taxpayer-backed loans.
Read more here.
‘I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that’: Fauci endorses nationwide stay-at-home orders
Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said Thursday on CNN that he thinks the entire country should be under stay-at-home orders.
“If you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that,” he told the network’s Anderson Cooper. “We really should be.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci made it clear that he supports all Americans being under a stay-at-home order.
— CNN (@CNN) April 3, 2020
"If you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that. We really should be." #CNNTownHall https://t.co/3V3x0KimSj pic.twitter.com/MJsoDzSFOe
Cooper had asked Fauci, who’s quickly become a familiar face as he advises on the White House’s coronavirus response, if it makes sense to him that some states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders.
“I mean, whether there should be a federally mandated directive for that or not — I guess that’s more of a political question — but just scientifically, doesn’t everybody have to be on the same page with this stuff?” Anderson asked.
Fauci agreed, though he said he did not want to “get into” the “tension” between a federal mandate and states’ rights.
President Trump maintained at Thursday’s coronavirus task force briefing that he would leave the decision about stay-at-home orders up to the states, rather than issue a blanket national one. He argued that many states have issued such policies on their own and many have kept the spread of covid-19 low.
Deborah Birx, the doctor coordinating the task force, urged Americans Thursday to do more social distancing — to which Trump countered that Americans should be “thrilled” with how well most states had done at keeping their case counts down.
Fauci also said on CNN that it’s “not a bad idea” for people to wear face coverings in public, as the White House is expected to advise in a reversal. He said the issue is “being discussed really very actively” and will be on the coronavirus task force’s agenda Friday.
“We say six feet away from each other, but when you go out … there’s going to be times where unwittingly you’re going to be closer than that,” Fauci said, adding that covering to one’s face would protect others — especially since people without symptoms can transmit the virus.
White House coronavirus task force missing 50 percent of coronavirus testing data
Dr. Deborah Birx said Thursday that the White House coronavirus task force is missing about 50 percent of the data from coronavirus testing nationwide.
Birx, the response coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said that while there have been 1.3 million tests administered, only 660,000 have been reported.
“The bill said you need to report and we are still not seeing 100 percent of the tests,” Birx said at Thursday’s news briefing. Vice President Pence had announced last week that all state and hospital labs were required by law to report their coronavirus test numbers to the CDC.
“We appreciate the groups that are reporting, [but] not everyone is reporting yet," Birx said. “... [but] what we are seeing finally is testing improving, more testing being done and still a high level of negative in states without hotspots, allowing them to do more of this surveillance and containment.”
Birx cautions against false sense of security from wearing a face covering
White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx cautioned Thursday that masks are no substitute for social distancing, as The Post reported that the White House is expected to urge Americans to begin wearing cloth masks or face coverings in public.
“The most important thing is the social distancing and washing your hands,” Birx said at the coronavirus task force briefing. “And we don’t want people to get an artificial sense of protection.”
President Trump said at the briefing that he does not expect any mandate to wear face coverings: “If people want to wear them, they can." Birx said later that when the advisory on the issue comes out, “it will be an additive piece … rather than saying this is a substitute for.”
Her words came as some state and local leaders have begun to issue their own guidance on face coverings — urging their use while grocery shopping, for example — while warning similarly against a false sense of security or taking much-needed medical-grade masks from health-care workers.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said at his Thursday news conference that statewide guidance issued Wednesday would not mandate mask-wearing in public in part because of concerns that would just intensify shortages.
“If individuals want to have face coverings that is a good thing and a preferable thing in addition to the physical distancing,” he said.
Earlier this week, CDC Director Robert Redfield confirmed in an interview with NPR that the agency’s guidance on mask-wearing was “being critically re-reviewed, to see if there’s potential additional value for individuals that are infected or individuals that may be asymptomatically infected.”
The World Health Organization, which has also not recommended masks for the general public, is also reconsidering its guidance, officials said.
Zaandam, Rotterdam cruise ships arrive at South Florida port with plan for most passengers to leave by Friday night
After spending more than two weeks searching for a port that would allow its passengers — some of whom are sick with the novel coronavirus — to disembark, Holland America Line’s Zaandam cruise ship pulled up late Thursday afternoon in Port Everglades, Fla.
It was accompanied by Rotterdam, a sister ship that took on hundreds of passengers last weekend off Panama. Between the two ships, 250 guests and crew have reported flu-like symptoms since March 22. Four people died on Zaandam, including two who tested positive for the coronavirus; nine people in total have confirmed cases, a Carnival executive said this week.
Thursday’s arrival followed days of negotiations, reluctance from Florida’s governor and intervention by President Trump — as well as intense pressure from those with loved ones or constituents on board and South Florida residents who wanted the vessels to find safe harbor in someone else’s backyard.
According to a plan that parent company Carnival Corp. worked out with a group of federal, state and local authorities, most passengers are expected to be off the ship by late Friday night. Priority to disembark on Thursday was going to 14 people in need of immediate care at local hospitals; the company paid for private ambulances to take them to the facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Another 26 passengers were still showing symptoms, according to the repatriation plan, and will stay on the ship in isolation until they recover enough to travel.
“It’s all going to be done in ways that are not going to expose the people of Florida to any of the illnesses that may be on there,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told Fox News Thursday. “Obviously you’ve got to be safe when you’re doing this stuff.”
Read more here.
Trump tests negative for coronavirus for second time
The White House announced that Trump took a second coronavirus test and once again tested negative.
This was the new rapid test that is administered in about a minute and produces the results in about 15 minutes. It wasn’t clear exactly why Trump took the test; he suggested there wasn’t immediate concern, but that he took it just to try it out.
“I think I took it really out of curiosity to see how quickly it worked and fast it worked,” Trump said. “And it’s a lot easier. I’ve done both. And the second one is much more pleasant — I can tell you that. Much more pleasant.”
These speedier tests are not available to most Americans, but Trump said more of them are being made.
Deborah Birx said that right now the government is prioritizing “the presidential 15-minute test” in remote, rural areas without access to more sophisticated testing, like Indian reservations, and in places that require more surveillance, like nursing homes.
Navy removes captain who raised alarm about covid-19 on USS Theodore Roosevelt
The Navy on Thursday removed the captain of an aircraft carrier crippled by the coronavirus, two days after a blunt letter the officer wrote warning the service of the need to get more sailors off the vessel created a furor.
Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was relieved of command at the direction of acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly.
White House considering direct payments to hospitals to cover coronavirus treatments for uninsured Americans
Vice President Pence announced Thursday that the White House was considering direct payments to hospitals to cover coronavirus treatment costs for uninsured Americans.
Pence said the administration is considering using some of the $100 billion allocated for hospitals in the stimulus package to go toward the cost of treating the uninsured.
“We don’t want any American to worry about the cost of getting a test or the cost of getting treatment,” Pence said. “We’ve expanded coverage through Medicaid, we’ve expanded coverage through Medicare.”
“We will find a way to pay for your coronavirus treatment,” he said.
President Trump also reiterated Thursday at his briefing that he will not reopen HealthCare.gov, the website for the Affordable Care Act health plans, to help more Americans buy insurance during the coronavirus crisis. Instead, he said they are “doing better than that.”
“We are going to try to get a cash payment to the people and we are working out the mechanics of that with legislature,” Trump said. “We are going to try to get them cash payments because just opening it up doesn’t help as much.”
Pence said the proposal would be brought to Trump on Friday from the White House coronavirus task force, with an expected announcement also to occur Friday.
Resistance to stay-at-home orders remains widespread
A growing number of states and cities are restricting Americans’ movements in response to a fast-spreading pandemic likely to claim hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.
But government and private-sector leaders across a large swath of the country remain defiant that the devastation unfolding in New York and other seemingly faraway cities should not curtail life in their own communities.
In some cases, skeptics have been slow to acknowledge the science behind the spread of the novel virus. In others, such as Florida, politicians took heed of demands from the business community, which lobbied DeSantis as recently as a Monday webinar to balance medical imperatives with economic needs. Elsewhere, adamance about local autonomy was pronounced. Some, meanwhile, maintained that it was religious authority that mattered.
Experts, Trump’s advisers doubt White House’s 240,000 deaths estimate
Leading disease forecasters, whose research the White House used to conclude 100,000 to 240,000 people will die nationwide from the coronavirus, were mystified when they saw the administration’s projection this week.
The experts said they don’t challenge the numbers’ validity but said they don’t know how the White House arrived at them.
White House officials have refused to explain how they generated the figure — a death toll bigger than the United States suffered in the Vietnam War or the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They have not provided the underlying data so others can assess its reliability or provided long-term strategies to lower that death count.
Florida’s new stay-at-home orders do not restrict worship services. Local officials are pushing back.
With calls to take stronger action against the coronavirus mounting, Florida on Wednesday joined the majority of states ordering residents to stay at home.
But the statewide regulations have set off confusion and dismay among some local leaders who say they don’t go far enough. The governor placed no restrictions on worship services, a flash point as Tampa-area law enforcement brought charges against a megachurch pastor earlier this week.
“Our hospitals better get ready, that’s all I gotta say,” said Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Lesley Miller on a teleconference meeting Thursday, after the county’s lawyers concluded that they would no longer be able to mandate that worshipers stay six feet apart.
Hillsborough County is where the Rev. Rodney Howard-Browne stands accused of flouting social-distancing rules when hundreds flocked to the River at Tampa Bay Church this past weekend.
Then, at a Thursday news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) seemed to back off a second executive order that had said his new rules would “supersede” any “conflicting” rules at the local level — the stipulation that had Hillsborough officials worried.
“What we’re doing is setting the floor, and they can’t go below the floor,” DeSantis clarified.
At the same time, DeSantis emphasized his support for continued worship services, saying churches could not be shut down but that local leaders could work with them on social distancing.
“In times like this, I think the service that [houses of worship] are performing is going to be very important for people,” DeSantis said, adding later, “The constitution doesn’t get suspended here.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to clarifying questions from The Washington Post on Thursday.
In a statement Thursday, Howard-Browne, the arrested pastor, said his congregation will not meet this Sunday “because of the publicity, the vitriol and death threats that have been directed at us and the church.”
But he said hasn’t decided what he will do for Easter — and will fight his “unlawful arrest.”
Trump uses Defense Production Act to compel 3M to provide more masks
In his second such announcement of the day, Trump said Thursday that he had again invoked the Defense Production Act, this time to compel 3M to provide more N95 face masks for use by medical workers in the United States.
“We have signed an element of the act against 3M, and hopefully they’ll be able to do what they are supposed to do,” Trump said.
Last week, Trump used the Korean War-era law to press General Motors to prioritize manufacturing ventilators to meet the demand from covid-19 patients.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who is overseeing the president’s DPA orders, said there had been issues with 3M making sure its products were coming back to the United States. He said the crisis has shown how dependent the United States is on the global supply chain for medical supplies.
“With that order … we’re going to resolve that issue with 3M probably by tomorrow, close of business, because we can’t afford to lose days or hours or even minutes in this crisis,” Navarro said.
The decision is especially noteworthy given how the Trump administration had been deferential to 3M, one of the nation’s largest mask manufacturers, as The Washington Post reported Thursday in a piece published hours before the president’s announcement. 3M did not immediately return a request for comment.
Vice President Pence visited the company’s headquarters in Minnesota on March 5, praising the company and its executives for their efforts to speed the production of masks for health-care workers. The White House also worked on the company’s behalf to resolve concerns it had over potential legal liability for repurposing industrial masks for use in health-care settings, including lobbying Congress for 3M.
But people in the health-care field criticized 3M, saying it was not getting the masks to the people who need them most. Andy Slavitt, a health-care expert who worked in the Obama administration, asked followers on Sunday to tweet 3M and “ask them how many of their masks are going to US medical community or other countries with shortages vs others? We can’t needlessly lose health care workers. They must make this public. And then change.”
Correction: A previous version of this post said this was the second time Trump invoked the Defense Production Act. It was the second time on Thursday. This post has been updated.
Trump sends scathing letter to Schumer, says senator should have had New York better prepared for pandemic
The White House late Thursday released a two-page letter Trump sent Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) in which the president lashed out at the Democrat, calling him “missing in action,” railing against the “impeachment hoax” and saying the senator should have had New York better prepared for the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a senator you are for the state of New York, until I became president,” Trump wrote.
Schumer spent more than a week negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on a $2 trillion emergency relief package that Trump signed into law on Friday.
Trump took issue with Schumer’s call earlier in the day for a military czar to oversee the production and distribution of medical equipment. Trump said Adm. John Polowczyk fills that role.
Poll shows strong bipartisan support for economic relief package, but many fear it won’t be enough
A new CBS News poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the $2 trillion economic relief package that was passed by Congress last month to combat the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, although a majority also believe the legislation won’t be enough.
Eighty-one percent of all Americans support the relief package. That figure includes 84 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Republicans and 77 percent of independents. But a majority of those surveyed — 57 percent — say they believe the package will not provide enough money for Americans to weather the crisis, amid record job losses.
Most Americans are adhering to the social distancing guidelines laid out by the Trump administration, according to the survey: 65 percent of those polled say they are going out only when they have to, while 16 percent say they are going out but being careful and 13 percent are not leaving home. Six percent say they are coming and going as usual.
The survey was conducted on March 31 and April 1 and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
White House rejects idea of opening healthcare.gov to help Americans buy health plans
The White House has stopped the idea of opening HealthCare.gov, the website for Affordable Care Act health plans, to help more Americans buy insurance during the coronavirus crisis.
In recent weeks, all but one of the 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, that run their own insurance marketplaces under the ACA have created “special enrollment periods,” overriding rules that typically allow those without job-based coverage to buy insurance during a brief window.
But a federal decision is needed to open HealthCare.gov to the 32 states that rely on the federal ACA marketplace, as well as a half-dozen states with their own marketplaces that use the federal computer system. On March 19, in a letter to congressional leaders, the nation’s two main health-insurance trade groups urged the government to allow a special enrollment period through HealthCare.gov.
As more Americans lose their jobs and employer-provided insurance, need is expected to grow sharply. Last week, 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits.
Within the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees much of the ACA, work on a special HealthCare.gov enrollment period “was well underway,” according to one individual outside the administration familiar with the preparations, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “It went over to the White House and, at that point, we learned there was no SEP.”
Pressed during a White House briefing Wednesday on why the administration had decided not to reopen HealthCare.gov, Vice President Pence sidestepped the question, saying, “We have Medicaid for underprivileged Americans.”
Trump said the question was “very fair” and praised the vice president, saying, “I think it is one of the greatest answers I have ever heard, because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question.”
Asked for comment Thursday, White House officials did not immediately reply.
Israeli spy agency’s latest mission: Hunting worldwide for scarce ventilators
JERUSALEM — Israel has turned to the Mossad, its top spy agency, to acquire ventilators and other medical supplies from abroad as the country races to handle a coronavirus outbreak that threatens to overwhelm its hospitals, according to government officials and Israeli media reports.
The Mossad has already flown in millions of masks, swabs and virus testing kits in recent days, as well as a small number of ventilators.
While Mossad officials have confirmed for local media that the equipment has been secured, the agency has declined to say where it is coming from, raising speculation that agents could be shopping in Arab countries or other nations that lack diplomatic relations with Israel.
One unidentified Mossad official described a chaotic international marketplace with governments from around the world scrambling for the same shortlist of suddenly hot commodities, including ventilators, N95 respirators and protective gear. Agents don’t hesitate to outbid, or outwit, purchasers from other nations, the official said on “Uvda,” an investigative news program on Israel’s Channel 12.
The Mossad answers directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the scope of the program Thursday, other than to confirm that he ordered the operation in the middle of March.
An Israeli official said the government tapped the Mossad to take a leading role in procurement not because of the agency’s secret agents but because of its logistical prowess. This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said Israel would not divert supplies earmarked for other countries.
Read more here.
Biden says his team is working to set up call with Trump
Former vice president Joe Biden said Thursday that his campaign is working to set up a phone call with President Trump to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, one day after Trump aides suggested that Biden call the president and offer to help.
“Well, I’m happy to hear he’ll take my call. My team is working with his team to set such a call up,” Biden said during a livestreamed news conference from his home in Delaware.
He offered some words of advice to the president.
"I have done this work before,” Biden said. “I can tell you, it takes more than tweets and press conferences. It’s hard. It’s painstaking work. This is when leaders have to lead and governments have to work.”
Biden, who holds a wide lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, also took aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) recent statements about a fourth legislative package to deal with the impact of the pandemic.
"The majority leader of the Senate was wrong and slow the first time around,” Biden said. “And he’s wrong and slow this time around. … No matter what Mitch says, he’s going to be back handling another package.”
California man who died of coronavius was among those who tested positive after attending party at Trump’s L.A. golf club
A California man who died of the coronavirus last week was one of several people who were diagnosed with the disease after they all attended the same birthday party at President Trump’s Los Angeles area golf club in early March, the man’s family said.
Bert Argo, 75, died on Friday, his daughter Melanie Young said.
She said Argo and his wife had visited the president’s golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., on the evening of March 8 for a birthday party for Susan Brooks — the town’s former mayor. The party — held in a rented upstairs room at the club — took place at a time when coronavirus seemed a more distant threat — Los Angeles County had just 14 known cases. The county did not ban large gatherings until more than a week later.
In the days after the party, at which guests danced and shared a microphone to toast Brooks, five people are known to have been diagnosed with covid-19, according to Brooks’s daughter. They included Brooks, the party’s host, as well as the current mayor of Rancho Palos Verdes. Both of them have since recovered.
Argo’s wife, Carol, fell ill as well, said Young, their daughter. She said Carol Argo has recovered. “Neither of my parents had any symptoms before or at the party,” Young said.
Argo was a North Carolina native who moved to California with his wife more than 40 years ago, settling in the hilly, seaside Palos Verdes Peninsula. He had semiretired from his job as a mortgage loan banker. Young said he flew private planes and mentored foster children. Her 2½-year-old daughter called him “Grandpa Bert.”
“Our family is in shock and deeply pained by this loss,” Young wrote in an email. “It will take a long time to recover.”
The Los Angeles County health department declined to comment, citing patient privacy. The Trump Organization also declined to comment. The Trump course in Rancho Palos Verdes is now closed because of a statewide lockdown.
Ohio governor says coronavirus peak in the state may come between April 15 and May 15
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Thursday that the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in the state may come between April 15 and May 15.
“We know that the peak is coming," DeWine said at his daily news conference. “We know that the surge is coming.”
DeWine also announced that the state’s stay-at-home order will be extended to May 1, noting that officials are “pretty sure” the state will not be through the crisis before then.
Speaking directly to Ohioans who are frustrated with the social distancing measures and the impact the pandemic has had on the economy, DeWine offered words of encouragement.
“I’m frustrated too,” DeWine said. “This is not how we want to live. ... What Ohioans are doing every day is saving lives.”
California is on track to meet patient needs thanks to social distancing, governor says
Two weeks ago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced the first statewide stay-at-home order in the United States, reshaping daily life for 40 million Americans and warning that the health-care system could be overwhelmed without swift action.
On Thursday, Newsom said social distancing has worked and that California is on track to meet patient needs, a contrast with the dire predictions still coming from some other states.
“It’s the individual acts of tens of millions of Californians that allow me to say the following … the [intensive-care unit] numbers and the hospitalization numbers, while they’re growing, are not growing as significantly as you’re seeing in other parts of the country,” Newsom said at his Thursday news conference.
California has 203 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths, he said. Deaths in New York, meanwhile, have soared past 2,000 as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) says hospitals are days away from running out of ventilators.
Most states have followed California’s lead with stay-at-home directives, a measure counties in the San Francisco Bay area had embraced even earlier. Florida and Georgia this week issued orders after mounting pressure.
Preliminary data for California and Washington state suggest mandatory social distancing did help stem the spread of covid-19, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Across the country, though, social distancing mandates have come at a steep economic cost. In California, 1.9 million people have filed for unemployment insurance since March 12, Newsom said Thursday.
Newsom emphasized that the biggest state in the country is not “out of the woods” yet and praised Californians for stepping up to meet a challenging moment. About 70,000 licensed medical professionals have signed up on the state’s Health Corps website to be matched with the facilities where they are most needed, he said.
Coronavirus patients will now be treated in Javits Center in New York
Coronavirus patients will now be treated in the Javits convention center in New York, according to New York officials and others familiar with the matter.
The Department of Defense has communicated to New York that the 1,000-bed makeshift hospital in the Javits Center will soon accept coronavirus patients, the people say, and the patients now at the center will be moved to the U.S. Navy’s Comfort hospital ship in New York Harbor.
Officials had previously said the center would be used to handle cases other than coronavirus. A spokeswoman for the state did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Javits Center is expected to begin taking patients within days, people familiar with the planning say. The federal government has built a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital in the Javits Center and shipped the Comfort hospital ship to New York as cases surge in the state. Almost 2,400 people have died after being infected with the disease in New York, where there are more than 92,000 cases.
Some New York hospital officials had grown frustrated that the center was not being used for coronavirus patients, saying they were overwhelmed and that the center could help alleviate their capacity issues.
Brazil reports first case in indigenous person in the Amazon
The first indigenous person living in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is confirmed to have coronavirus, the Health Ministry announced Wednesday, raising fears that the virus could spread fast among the country’s more than 300 tribes who live in remote, often communal hamlets.
The patient is a 20-year-old woman from the Kokama tribe living in the Santo Antonio do Ia district by the border with Colombia, according to Sesai, the Health Ministry’s indigenous health service, cited by Reuters.
She is reportedly a medical worker who had been in contact with a doctor that was one of four other confirmed cases in the district. The doctor had recently returned from vacation in southern Brazil, according to Sesai.
The health ministry said that the woman had not shown symptoms of the disease, covid-19, caused by the novel coronavirus.
Over centuries, diseases brought by Europeans have decimated Brazil’s indigenous communities, now numbering at around 850,000.
As The Post reported, from the Canadian Arctic to the Australian coast, indigenous people around the globe are bracing for an outbreak of yet another foreign infection and the deadly mark it could leave on historically marginalized and impoverished communities.
Dow jumps nearly 500 points as U.S. stocks surge in choppy session
Stocks vaulted to big gains Thursday on word that Saudi Arabia and Russia may cut oil production by 10 million barrels a day, distracting investors from a dismal employment report that showed coronavirus-related job losses jumped by 6.6 million in one week.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 500 points shortly after President Trump told CNBC that Russia and Saudi Arabia had agreed to consider significant production cuts to stabilize the price of oil, which has fallen about 60 percent in the past month. But the feel-good vibe out of the oil meetup was temporary. Stocks bounced around for much of the rest of the day, then climbed in the final hour to close up 469 points, or 2.2 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite index. also posted healthy gains.
Read more here.
Trump invokes Defense Production Act to ‘facilitate the supply’ of equipment to build ventilators
President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to six companies, including General Electric, to “facilitate the supply of materials” for ventilators, he announced Thursday.
Trump said his order will “more fully ensure that domestic manufacturers can produce ventilators needed to save American lives.” The six companies included in the order to the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security are General Electric, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Philips and Vyaire Medical.
Trump stated that he was “grateful” to those manufacturers for ramping up production of ventilators during this “difficult time.” The Defense Production Act gives the president several powers to ensure supplies for national defense are produced by U.S. industries and distributed to places that need them. The act has been reauthorized by Congress more than 50 times since it passed in 1950, most recently in 2018.
On Friday, Trump said he was using the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators, saying the automaker was “wasting time” in negotiations with the government.
“Today’s order will save lives by removing obstacles in the supply chain that threaten the rapid production of ventilators,” Trump said in a statement.
Texas border city orders residents to cover nose, mouth in public
The Texas border town of Laredo appears to have become the first in the country to fine residents if they do not wear a cover over their nose and mouth in public.
The order, which went into effect early Thursday and runs until April 30, carries a $1,000 fine for residents who don’t use a mask, bandanna, scarf or fabric to cover their faces in public buildings and at transit and outdoor gas stations.
It’s a steep fine for a border town where one out of every three Laredoans lives at or below the poverty line. Local law enforcement will be issuing citations, and judges have discretion to levy fines.
“The whole point of this is for people to stay safe in their homes,” said City of Laredo spokesman Rafael Benavides. “We want people to think twice before running out the door about whether it’s necessary.”
Laredo has 63 confirmed cases of covid-19 and has reported four deaths. The city also has imposed a 10 p.m. curfew.
International trade is the lifeblood of the city of 261,000, which is the southernmost point of the vital Interstate 35 corridor that supplies goods and produce across the nation.
City council member George Altgelt, who voted for the measure in a special council session Tuesday night, said Mexico has not taken the threat seriously enough, forcing Laredo to take more drastic measures to protect its residents and economy.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has limited border crossings to essential workers and commercial trucking, but city lawmakers are still worried the city may be vulnerable if people don’t “keep their droplets to themselves,” said Councilman Mercurio Martinez III.
“The more serious we take this virus and the more serious measures we impose, the quicker we will bounce out of the economic hit,” Altgelt said. “Being on the [frontier] means we are far away from Washington and Austin. We realize that this a self-rescue mission, and the federal government is not coming to save us. So, we are doing our part.”
Hospital ships begin treating non-coronavirus patients
Two naval hospital ships are now treating small numbers of patients in their locations off Los Angeles and New York City as part of the Pentagon’s attempt to relieve pressure on hospitals in those areas, military officials said Thursday.
Capt. Patrick Amersbach, who commands the USNS Comfort, told reporters that his ship began seeing patients on Wednesday afternoon and so far had treated three people referred from medical facilities in New York. More are expected to be transferred onto the ship shortly, he said.
The USNS Mercy, which is located off Los Angeles, has treated 15 patients, five of whom had been discharged, said Capt. John Rotruck, that ship’s commander.
The officials said all patients will be tested for the virus before being taken on the ships.
Rotruck said the intent was to “get the capability and capacity in place early before the hospitals in the local areas were already overwhelmed, so that we could establish the relationships and ensure the processes were sound to get patients to the ship, so that when the capacity demand really increases, we’ll be ready.”
Military officials said they were in the process of setting up a 250-bed medical facility at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field Event Center, which is expected to begin treating non-covid-19 patients early next week.
Belgium’s annual bike race to take place virtually
European competitive cycling is shifting gears to use virtual platforms for racing, as sporting organizations around the world are looking for new footing amid the cancellations of events and competitions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Belgium’s annual Tour of Flanders has been held each spring for more than 100 years, drawing massive crowds and dozens of cyclists. But with Belgium on lockdown, its residents confined to their homes except for trips for food and medicine, this year’s race, which was initially canceled, is scheduled to be held on Sunday — virtually. The competition’s 13 riders will be cycling in place in their own homes. They’ll ride the simulated last 19 miles of a course that typically stretches more than 100 miles. The Flemish television channel Sporza is expected to broadcast the race, with its regular commentators.
If proved a success, other cycling events may follow suit as it seems unlikely regular races will resume anytime soon. On Wednesday, the UCI, the international cycling body, announced the suspension of all races until June 1.
The transition comes as other sports are trying their hand at virtual competition. Both NASCAR and Formula One announced plans to hold car races online with at-home simulators while the pandemic keeps competitive drivers inside.
Trudeau calls reports supplies destined for Canada being diverted elsewhere ‘concerning’
TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said reports of medical supplies destined for Canada being diverted elsewhere, including to the United States, are “concerning.”
Speaking to reporters outside Rideau Hall, an official residence in Ottawa where the prime minister is self-isolating, Trudeau said he asked Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Transport Minister Marc Garneau to follow up on the reports.
“We need to make sure that equipment destined for Canada gets to and stays in Canada,” Trudeau said. He said while he understands there is “a glaring need” for personal protective equipment — such as masks and gloves — in the United States, the same is true for Canada.
One report from Radio-Canada said a shipment of masks bound for Quebec arrived smaller than expected after traveling through Europe. Another shipment was resold to the highest bidder just as it was about to leave China.
A report from Le Journal de Montreal said a Montreal-based businessman bought 10,000 N95 protective masks, which he planned to donate to local hospitals. But after they arrived at a DHL shipment center in Quebec, they were inexplicably diverted to Ohio.
The reports come as countries around the world fight for critical supplies in a tight market, at times using ruthless tactics and touching off diplomatic spats.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the province, which has more than half of Canada’s novel coronavirus cases, could run out of masks and gloves within seven days.
FDA slightly reduces restrictions on gay men giving blood
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration slightly rolled back guidelines on Thursday that limit gay men and their sexual partners from giving blood, amid an uncertain time for blood supplies in the United States.
LGBTQ advocates have long decried the blanket ban on men who have recently had sex with men, as well as women who’ve had sex with bisexual men, from donating blood as discriminatory and contrary to science.
Under the new guidelines released Thursday, the FDA requires that men who have sex with men, as well as any other sexual partners, wait three months since having sexual contact before giving blood, down from the previous deferral period of 12 months. In 2015, the FDA withdrew a lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men from giving blood and instituted the one-year waiting period.
“Based on recently completed studies and epidemiologic data, the FDA has concluded that current policies regarding certain donor eligibility criteria can be modified without compromising the safety of the blood supply,” the FDA said in a statement.
LGBTQ rights groups lauded the modification as a step forward but called on the FDA to lift the entire waiting period, which in practice prevents millions of people in the United States from giving blood,
“Under the new guidelines, a person who has had unprotected sex only days before can still donate blood, while a gay or bisexual man who has had sex with another man within three months of the date of donation — despite using condoms and taking HIV prevention medicine like PREP — cannot,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign.
“This difference is unfair, and based in bias,” he said.
“It shouldn’t have taken a pandemic and resulting urgent blood shortage to make progress on this issue,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis), who has advocated for ending the deferral.
All blood donations in the United States are tested for diseases, including HIV, and are discarded if they are found to be infected.
Britain aims to ramp up testing to 100,000 per day
LONDON — The British government announced Thursday its aim to carry out 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month, a massive boost from current levels.
The announcement follows days of mounting criticism that the British government hasn’t done enough testing, which currently runs at about 10,000 people a day. Some reports say that Germany is conducting 50,000 tests per day.
“I’m now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month,” Matt Hancock, Britain’s health secretary, said at the government’s daily news briefing. Hancock spent last week in self-isolation after testing positive for coronavirus.
He said that the goal would include swab tests to see if people have the virus as well as antibody blood tests, which would test to see if someone had previously had it.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is in self-isolation after testing positive for covid-19, said in a video message Wednesday that testing was “how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle. This is how we will defeat it in the end.”
Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who has been urging the government to step up its testing, fired off tweets Thursday.
“You don’t promise 100k tests a day with a firm deadline unless you are deadly serious. This is great news for NHS staff,” he said.
“There wasn’t too much detail about mass community testing which has worked so well in Germany, Korea etc. & allows an exit from national lockdown. That needs antigen more than antibody tests,” he Hunt. “But if we’re doing 100k tests/day we have a platform that could deliver this.”
People are porting canceled real-world plans into a Nintendo game
Sharmin Asha and her fiance, Nazmul Ahmed, had to face a hard truth — it wasn’t safe to bring her family and friends together under one roof. They’d have to cancel their wedding.
“We were basically 99-percent ready to get married, which unfortunately did not happen,” Asha said.
In the weeks that followed their decision, the 28-year-old couple from New Jersey tried to move past their disappointment, taking up the new Nintendo Switch game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the recommendation of a friend.
They enjoyed their time with the life simulator, harvesting resources and using them to upgrade their personalized islands with new buildings and items.
Then came an idea.
House Oversight chair blasts massive shortfalls of medical supplies from FEMA
House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) sharply criticized the Trump administration Thursday after the release of Federal Emergency Management Agency documents showing a massive shortfall in the number of medical supplies delivered to five states and the District of Columbia.
“Unfortunately, President Trump spent months downplaying the coronavirus crisis and wasting precious time as thousands of Americans tested positive, got sick, and died,” Maloney said in a statement.
“Rather than casting doubt on the gravity of this pandemic, the Administration should have been working around the clock to prepare and execute plans to obtain desperately needed personal protective equipment and medical supplies.”
She called on Trump to “take all steps within his authority” to get the supplies and personal protective equipment to the front-line workers who need them.
According to Maloney’s office, the documents show that as of March 30, FEMA had supplied “only a fraction” of the equipment requested in Region III, which includes Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
The jurisdictions received less than 10 percent of the N95 masks they requested, less than 1 percent of the gloves they have sought and none of the body bags requested.
Italy and Spain see ‘first positive signs,’ ambassadors to U.S. say
The Italian and Spanish ambassadors to the United States on Thursday reported signs of improvement in the coronavirus situation in their countries, where numbers of confirmed infections, hospitalizations and deaths remain high but are beginning to stabilize.
“These are just the first positive signs, and they have to be taken cautiously,” Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio said. “But they show that measures taken both nationally and at the local level have started to pay off.”
Both Varricchio and Spanish Ambassador Santiago Cabanas, speaking from their Washington homes, stressed the need for international solidarity and cooperation.
The diplomats expressed gratitude for aid shipments and advice from China, which has sent a team of doctors to Italy, but said their governments are fully aware that the Chinese government sees its assistance as part of a global competition.
“We should not try to buy into a [Chinese] narrative that might fall under the umbrella of public diplomacy,” Varricchio said. “We’re not naive, and we understand it very well.”
Wildlife advocates criticize China’s promotion of bear bile as virus treatment
In early March, Chinese officials released a list of recommended remedies to treat the novel coronavirus. Among the mix of traditional and Western medicines listed was bear bile containing ursodeoxycholic acid, which is considered to have immune system calming properties.
There is no cure yet for the virus that causes the disease covid-19, nor is there scientific evidence that bear bile, a long-standing tool in traditional Chinese medicine, will help.
Instead, wildlife advocates have reported seeing an impact: Aron White with the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) told National Geographic that he learned about the Chinese government’s promotion of bear bile from illegal animal traders talking about it on social media.
“We were witnessing how this government recommendation was being co-opted by the traffickers to advertise their illegal products as a treatment,” White told National Geographic.
Asiatic black bears are famed for their bile, but it’s also illegal to commercially trade them or their urine across borders. In China, the bile comes from bears raised legally in captivity, as well as from bears poached in China, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, said White.
“There’s a consistent preference among consumers for the wild product, which is often regarded as more powerful or ‘the real deal,’” White said. “So, having this legal market from captivity doesn’t reduce pressure on the wild populations — it actually just maintains demand that drives poaching.”
39 percent of Americans report job or pay loss, poll finds
Almost 4 in 10 Americans either were laid off or lost income because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll released Thursday.
The poll found 28 percent were laid off, lost a job or had hours reduced without pay. A separate question found 26 percent said they lost income from a job or business, with 39 percent reporting either type of economic setback.
This finding indicates how the outbreak and business shutdown have already taken a broad economic toll, even as Americans brace for months of social distancing. A record 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, with the number of jobs lost in the past two weeks almost outpacing the number created in the past five years.
According to the KFF poll, similar shares across income levels lost their jobs or income. And there were modest differences across racial and ethnic lines, 44 percent of Hispanic adults said they were affected financially, along with 42 percent of black Americans and 36 percent of whites.
The poll found that parents were more economically affected than others. Nearly half (47 percent) of parents with children under 18 years old said they were affected economically, compared with 35 percent of those who are not parents.
More than half of respondents said they were worried to put themselves at risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus because they couldn’t afford to stay home and miss work — up from 35 percent who said this in March.
The KFF poll was conducted March 25 to 30 among a random national sample of 1,226 adults reached on cell and landline phones. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Fort Lauderdale-bound Coral Princess confirms 12 covid-19 cases onboard
The Coral Princess cruise ship, which told all passengers to stay in their rooms Tuesday after a “higher-than-normal number” of people reported flu-like symptoms, has 12 cases of covid-19 onboard, Princess Cruises said Thursday.
Passengers said the ship’s captain announced the news Wednesday night over a public-address system. The ship is carrying 1,020 guests and 878 crew members.
The ship sent 13 test samples to Barbados during a stop for supplies on Tuesday, Princess Cruises said. Twelve of those — taken from seven guests and five crew members — came back positive.
“Coral Princess is on her way to Fort Lauderdale with an estimated arrival date of April 4,” the company said in a statement. “Princess Cruises continues to remain in contact with local officials regarding disembarkation details.”
The ship approaches on the heels of the Zaandam and the Rotterdam, which were awaiting final details of disembarkation plans Thursday. Nine people on the Zaandam have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and President Trump and Florida’s governor have weighed in on the fate of the passengers.
Princess Cruises ships have been the scenes of the most high-profile coronavirus crises on cruise ships, including the Diamond Princess in Japan in February and the Grand Princess in California last month.
The cruise line announced a 60-day suspension of operations on March 12, but some ships — including the Coral Princess — have not been able to find a place to dock over the past couple of weeks as ports shut down around the world.
Pence voices support for review of China’s ‘lack of candor’ about coronavirus outbreak
Vice President Pence voiced support Thursday for reviewing “China’s lack of candor to the world” about the coronavirus outbreak, as calls mounted from fellow Republicans to hold the nation accountable for the early spread of the pandemic.
Pence said the focus now should be on the ongoing U.S. response, but he made clear that “there will be a day for that discussion” about China’s culpability.
“What seems evident now is that they were experiencing a significant outbreak of the coronavirus long before they revealed it to the world,” Pence said on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox Radio. “There’s simply no question that China’s lack of candor to the world impacted the way the world was able to respond.”
Several GOP lawmakers have called for establishing a commission to investigate China, as has former U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions, who is now seeking to regain his former Senate seat from Alabama.
On Thursday, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton called for a “black book” documenting China’s conduct regarding the coronavirus. He wrote in tweets that he blamed China for concealing information.
Bolton said that he wanted “to document for history the almost-incalculable human cost [of] China’s atrocious behavior on coronavirus.”
“Untold numbers of people have died needlessly because of the authoritarian Beijing regime’s conduct,” Bolton said. “The global economy has suffered a catastrophic setback that might have been substantially mitigated had China just been honest.”
Bolton went on to accuse the Chinese government of erasing information related to the virus and of stealing U.S. intellectual property on vaccines.
The global race to develop a vaccine against the virus that causes the disease covid-19 has kick-started widespread international collaboration, but it has also been a source of diplomatic tension between Washington and Beijing.
Iran’s longtime parliament speaker is country’s latest senior official to test positive for covid-19
ISTANBUL — Ali Larijani, Iran’s parliament speaker and one of the country’s most prominent political figures, has tested positive for covid-19 and is receiving medical treatment in quarantine, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported Thursday.
Larijani, who has served as parliament speaker since 2008 and hails from a powerful political family, is among dozens of Iranian officials and lawmakers who have been infected during Iran’s outbreak, the most severe in the Middle East and among the worst in the world.
More than 50,000 people have been infected and 3,160 people have died, according to the health ministry. Among the dead are dozens of members of parliament and a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Larijani, 63, a former head of state-run television, served as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator until he resigned in 2007 over differences with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was president at the time.
A conservative who is considered close to the supreme leader, Larijani was elected as parliament speaker, a powerful post, the following year. He did not stand for reelection in the latest parliamentary polls, which were held in February.
Iran’s government announced its first case of covid-19 in late February and has been criticized for its initially lackluster response, including its refusal to close religious shrines and quarantine areas with known infections.
Feds seize nearly 1 million pieces of medical supplies from price gougers
Federal officials have seized nearly 1 million pieces of personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray from price gougers and plan to redistribute them to health-care workers in New York and New Jersey, the two states hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak.
The FBI discovered the supplies — which includes about 192,000 N95 respirator masks and 598,000 medical-grade gloves — during an operation of the Justice Department’s COVID-19 Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force on March 30, according to a news release.
The agency alerted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which used its authority under the Defense Production Act, to seize the supplies as property of the government. Officials said in the release that HHS will pay the owner of the seized materials “fair market value.”
The supplies were inspected and will be sent to the New Jersey and New York state health departments, as well as New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The operation was the first “of many” that are underway, Defense Production Act coordinator Peter Navarro said in the release.
“All individuals and companies hoarding any of these critical supplies, or selling them at well above market prices, are hereby warned they should turn them over to local authorities or the federal government now or risk prompt seizure by the federal government,” Navarro said.
Vendors can sell their personal protective equipment to the federal government through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hoarding or price gouging of PPE can be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud by calling 1-866-720-5721 or emailing disaster@leo.gov
Italy reports 760 new deaths, more than 4,600 new cases
Italy reported an additional 760 deaths on Thursday, bringing the country’s total coronavirus death toll to 13,915 and the global toll close to 50,000.
The daily death tally marks a slight increase over the previous day, when 727 deaths were confirmed. Officials also said Thursday that 4,668 more people in Italy have been diagnosed with the virus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 115,242.
Italy has reported more coronavirus deaths than any other country. More than one-quarter of all deaths worldwide have been confirmed in Italy. Officials hope that Italy’s strict lockdown will soon lead to a sharp decrease in the number of new cases.
Democrats delay presidential convention from July until August
Democrats will delay their presidential nominating convention until the week of Aug. 17 to increase the likelihood that the party can hold an in-person gathering in Milwaukee amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Democratic convention committee announced Thursday.
The decision to reschedule from July puts the Democratic gathering one week before the Republican convention in Charlotte starting Aug. 24, which both President Trump and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel have pledged recently will go forward.
Trump said last week that there was “no way” his convention would be canceled, and McDaniel said that planning for a “full seated” convention was moving “full steam ahead.”
423 new deaths reported in New York, pushing total far past 2,000
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced 423 new deaths from the novel coronavirus Thursday, bringing the state’s total to 2,373, with more than half in New York City alone.
There were 8,669 new confirmed cases statewide, for a total caseload of 92,381, with infections in every county.
Speaking during his daily news briefing, Cuomo said while the outbreak is concentrated in New York City, cases of the virus have been found in counties that are urban, suburban and rural, including those that have “more cows than people.”
Because of that, he warned, the idea that lower-density communities won’t be affected is “a false comfort.”
His state, he said, offers a preview for the rest of the country.
“In many ways, New York state is a microcosm of the United States,” Cuomo said. “And that’s why I believe it’s going to be illustrative for the rest of this nation as for what’s going to happen.”
Pelosi establishes special committee to oversee Trump administration response
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the creation Thursday of a select committee to oversee the Trump administration’s handling of the trillions of dollars Congress is pouring into the effort to rescue the health system and the U.S. economy in the wake of the deadly coronavirus.
Pelosi said that her new committee would be modeled after the World War II-era committee run by then-Sen. Harry S. Truman (D-Mo.), whose role in investigating the implementation of billions of dollars in defense contracts eventually led to his elevation to vice president.
While also voicing support for an independent commission to review the origin and spread of the virus, the speaker said that this new committee needed to serve as an everyday watchdog of the more than $2 trillion already allocated to fight the virus and the virtual lockdown it has placed on the economy.
“I don’t want to wait for that,” Pelosi told reporters on a conference call, regarding a broader after-action review of what led to this moment, “because we are in the action now.”
Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the No. 3 Democratic leader as majority whip, will chair the committee, Pelosi said.
New England Patriots plane transports cache of masks for hospitals
No days off. Thanks to some serious teamwork, Massachusetts is set to receive over 1 million N95 masks for our front-line workers. Huge thanks to the Krafts and several dedicated partners for making this happen. pic.twitter.com/ieV6XMC5Ow
— Charlie Baker (@MassGovernor) April 2, 2020
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft helped secure and arrange for more than 1.7 million N95 masks to be delivered to hospitals in Massachusetts and New York, government and team officials said.
An initial shipment of about 1.2 million masks is scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon in Boston from China and is being carried by the Patriots’ team plane, with the remaining masks arriving as soon as next week.
“No days off. Thanks to some serious teamwork, Massachusetts is set to receive over 1 million N95 masks for our front-line workers,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) wrote on Twitter. “Huge thanks to the Krafts and several dedicated partners for making this happen.”
Overburdened health-care workers have cited shortages of personal protective equipment amid the global novel coronavirus pandemic.
Saudi Arabia imposes new restrictions on holy cities of Mecca and Medina
As new infections continue to climb in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Interior on Thursday announced a new round of restrictions on residents of Mecca and Medina, effectively putting Islam’s two holiest cities under a Wuhan-style lockdown.
Residents will be allowed to leave their houses only from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. to buy food or medical supplies nearby. Any commercial activities beyond supermarkets, pharmacies, banking and gas stations are forbidden, although health workers are excluded from the restrictions, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Just one passenger can be in a car at a time under the new guidelines. Authorities had already forbidden movement into and out of the cities.
The kingdom on March 17 barred congregational prayer in mosques throughout the country of 30 million. While Mecca and Medina were initially excluded from the ban because of their religious significance, the government reversed course days later.
As of Thursday, the Saudi Health Ministry reported 1,885 confirmed cases and 21 deaths from covid-19, with the bulk of new infections coming from Mecca and Medina.
Last month, Saudi authorities announced the kingdom’s first coronavirus cases in the eastern province of Qatif among pilgrims returning from Iran. Qatif has been on lockdown for almost four weeks since then. Among the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia has the most confirmed coronavirus infections and deaths from the covid-19.
On Wednesday, a Saudi official asked pilgrims to delay booking tickets for the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a yearly religious ritual set to take place in July and August.
Britain records 569 new deaths, its highest daily death toll yet
An additional 569 people have died in Britain after contracting the coronavirus, British health officials said Thursday, bringing the total number of reported deaths in the country to 2,921.
The daily death toll is the highest Britain has recorded since the outbreak began, but the deaths account only for those recorded in hospitals, meaning the toll is almost certainly higher.
Roughly 60 percent of global deaths have occurred in Italy, Spain, France and Britain alone. Britain has recorded nearly 34,000 positive cases of the coronavirus after testing more than 163,000 people.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still exhibiting symptoms of infection, the Guardian newspaper reported Thursday, several days after he announced he had tested positive. If his symptoms do not subside, it could lead to an extension of his self-isolation.
Georgia governor says he did not know of asymptomatic transmission
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said Wednesday that he had only just learned people can spread the coronavirus without showing symptoms, despite warnings of that possibility dating to late January.
The governor’s remark came as he explained why he was issuing a stay-at-home order, after previously resisting the step, which has been taken by at least 30 states. Kemp had ordered schools and bars to close and supported shelter-at-home orders put in place at the local level, “even as his top aide chastised those local governments for ‘overreach,’” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
But he maintained that more drastic measures were not warranted — until learning of the “game-changer.”
“What we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC, for weeks now, that if you start feeling bad, stay home,” he said during a news conference. “Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad. We didn’t know that until the last 24 hours.”
In an email, Kemp spokesman Cody Hall said the governor was referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Monday guidance noting that studies have found infections in patients who never developed symptoms.
However, the first warnings of asymptomatic transmission came Jan. 26, when China’s health minister told reporters that the virus was infectious during its incubation period — a claim reported by U.S. news outlets.
The CDC said then that it had no “clear evidence of that” but was investigating.
Another warning came March 14, during a briefing by the White House’s coronavirus task force. Deborah Birx, the doctor coordinating the task force, said at that briefing that officials were seeking to determine the number of asymptomatic carriers.
Putin extends Russia’s stay-at-home order until the end of April
MOSCOW — As Russia experienced its sharpest daily rise in coronavirus cases, President Vladimir Putin announced a three-week extension to the national stay-at-home requirement until the end of the month, for all but essential services.
In a national televised address Thursday, Putin thanked the nation’s medical staff and said that by self-isolating, Russians were buying time.
“The nonworking week announced throughout the country, as well as the self-isolation regime envisaged for residents of many regions, allowed us to gain time for proactive actions, for mobilizing all authorities, for building up resources and the health-care system,” Putin said.
Putin last week announced that except for essential services, Russians should stay away from work for a week starting Monday. But Anna Popova, the nation’s chief sanitary doctor, called for an extension Wednesday to contain the virus.
The number of coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 771 to reach 3,548 Thursday, with at least 30 deaths.
Just last week, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “there is de facto no epidemic” in Russia and that the Kremlin hoped to avoid one.
But Russia has recently seen its caseload increase by several hundred a day. Popova tried to assuage fears Wednesday, saying that Russia had not seen explosive growth in cases. Russia’s Federal Medical Biological Agency predicted Thursday that the rate of coronavirus infections could peak next week.
The deputy director of the agency, Alexander Burkin, attributed the sharp rise in cases to Russia’s ramped-up testing.
Russia has closed its borders, increased its testing and contact tracing, and postponed a nationwide vote on constitutional changes that would allow Putin to stay in power for two more terms after his current term ends in 2024.
Most passengers to disembark from Zaandam ship in South Florida
Carnival Corp. and a group of federal, state and local authorities in Florida have reached an agreement to allow passengers off a coronavirus-struck ship that has been stranded for weeks, according to a local official.
“Unified Command conferenced last night and reached cond. approval of Carnival’s plan, subject to approval between Broward and Carnival,” Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine said Thursday on Twitter.
“Final document will be released this morning. As of now, ships remain outside US Waters. Look forward to seeing a SAFE plan for all to resolve.”
Holland America Line ships Zaandam and Rotterdam, which took on many of its guests, are preparing to let passengers off at Port Everglades in the Fort Lauderdale area. Port spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said in an email that a few details still needed to be worked out.
In a statement Wednesday night, Holland America said nearly 1,200 passengers were “fit for travel.” Most will leave the ship in masks and board buses for the airport to get home, “the majority on charter flights.”
About 45 passengers with “mild illness” will stay isolated on the ship until they have recovered. An “estimated less than 10 people who need critical care shoreside” will be transferred to a local medical facility, the statement said.
Four people on the ship have died, two of whom tested positive for covid-19. Nine people total tested positive out of 11 who were tested, a Carnival executive said this week.
96 percent of coronavirus fatalities in Europe are 60 or older, WHO says
The World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, reemphasized Thursday that young people “are not invincible,” even as he released figures that showed that 96 percent of all fatalities in Europe were 60 or older.
More than 80 percent of them had one or more underlying conditions, Kluge said, adding that Europe’s high number of senior residents poses a particular challenge on the continent.
But the regional director also noted a number of “severe cases of the disease" that have hit “people in their teens or 20s, with many requiring intensive care and some unfortunately passing away.”
The vast majority of the more than 30,000 deaths in the European region were concentrated in a small number of disproportionately heavily impacted nations, Kluge said.
Out of all European nations, Italy has reported the most coronavirus deaths, with more than 13,000 fatalities. Spain announced Thursday that it has surpassed 10,000 deaths, and the number of fatalities surged above 4,000 in France.
The real death tolls could be higher, however. In France, for instance, nursing homes have reported a recent spike in deaths, with 570 fatalities during the outbreak in a particularly virus-stricken region, but officials have been hesitant to attribute them to the coronavirus. The practice has triggered questions about the national death toll’s accuracy.
In Italy and the United Kingdom, several recent analyses have raised similar concerns. In some towns at the epicenter of Italy’s coronavirus outbreak, monthly death tolls surged as much as tenfold during the outbreak, compared to the same time period in 2019, according to one analysis.
Researchers believe that the real death toll in Italy could be far higher than officially reported, as it probably does not include many deaths in nursing homes or private apartments.
The aviation industry’s unprecedented free fall
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed some airlines into bankruptcy and cut tens of thousands of flights, with some airlines grounding all their aircraft until this is over.
Business and leisure travel has cratered, and pilots are flying nearly empty jets around the United States and Europe. According to Aireon, a satellite-based aviation tracking company, 37,826 aircraft were tracked on Nov. 5, before the coronavirus started exacting a toll on international air travel.
On Tuesday, however, that number was down by a third.
Passenger statistics are even starker. On Tuesday, the Transportation Security Administration screened just over 146,000 passengers at U.S. airports, a 94 percent plunge from 2.4 million on the same day last year. Satellite photos show planes parked at airports all over the world as airlines rush to find available pavement, from the California desert to Paris.
Even the newest jets are being stored, and the industry is expected to emerge from this with fewer planes and employees.
Amazon vowed to crack down on profiteering, but some sellers found loopholes
Amazon took a hard line against pandemic profiteering last month, vowing to remove product listings that claim to prevent the coronavirus.
But third-party merchants that sell millions of items on the e-commerce giant’s marketplace are finding ways around that. The latest gambit: promising coronavirus protection in the gallery of images that shoppers see next to a product on the site.
A photo hawking Lutos Advanced Hand Sanitizer claims that it will “protect you from covid-19,” without making the claim in the product description.
Consumers‘ trust in Amazon makes that marketing particularly hazardous, said Svetlana Ilnitskaya, director of customer strategy of Incopro, a firm that helps brands protect themselves from intellectual property and copyright theft.
“The claims are false and it’s really a dangerous place for consumers,” Ilnitskaya said.
(Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Trump says states have ‘insatiable appetites’ for medical supplies, calls some leaders ‘complainers'
President Trump lashed out Thursday at state leaders, saying that some have “insatiable appetites” for supplies to respond to the coronavirus outbreak and calling some “complainers.”
“Massive amounts of medical supplies, even hospitals and medical centers, are being delivered directly to states and hospitals by the Federal Government,” Trump said in tweets. “Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?). Remember, we are a backup for them. The complainers should have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit."
His tweets come as governors express concerns about being prepared to cope with rapidly growing coronavirus cases.
In earlier tweets, Trump charged that New York “got off to a late start” in combating the outbreak, and he lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), claiming that Schumer should have “pushed harder” to help his state.
Trump’s attack on Schumer took place shortly after a television appearance in which the senator said he plans to write to the president to call for the appointment of a “czar” to oversee the production and distribution of medical supplies under the Defense Production Act.
Democrats have assailed Trump for not making broader use of the measure, which allows him to direct private companies to manufacture products. Schumer said his preference would be a “military man.”
In his tweets, Trump said such a person is already filling that role, apparently referring to Navy Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, the head of a new federal “supply chain task force.”
“Somebody please explain to Cryin’ Charles E. Schumer that we do have a military man in charge of distributing goods,” Trump tweeted. “New York has gotten far more than any other State, including hospitals & a hospital ship, but no matter what, always complaining. … Unlike other states, New York unfortunately got off to a late start. You should have pushed harder.”
U.S. stocks surrender most gains on dismal jobless numbers
A 350-point futures rally in the U.S. stock market vaporized within minutes Thursday after the Labor Department reported a record 6.6 million jobless claims — double last week’s number and the worst labor news since the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones industrial average had been signaling a 363-point advance ahead of the market open, nearly 2 percent.
But the dismal jobless-claims figure, which was twice what analysts expected, sent financial markets south in a hurry.
New Jersey clears way for immigrant doctors to help fight virus
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order authorizing immigrant doctors licensed in another country to practice medicine in the state, a move that eliminates the red tape preventing many foreign-born medical professionals from helping fight the novel coronavirus.
The executive order, signed Wednesday, allows state officials to grant temporary licenses to doctors who have a medical license in another country. It also empowers the state to temporarily reactivate the licenses of health-care professionals who were certified and retired within the last five years.
“My Administration is working tirelessly with our hospital systems and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to expand bed capacities, reopen closed hospitals, and erect field medical stations to prepare for additional covid-19 cases,” Murphy said in a statement.
“We need trained, experienced medical personnel to ensure proper staffing as we build out this new capacity, which is why we have put out the call to retired health care professionals to join our fight and support our existing workforce.”
New Jersey trails only New York in coronavirus cases. More than 22,000 people have been diagnosed with the virus, and more than 350 have died.
The U.S. military has struggled to mobilize its own reserve of immigrant doctors, The Post has reported. Dozens of immigrant physicians who enlisted through a Pentagon program meant to harness their medical skills were stuck taking out trash and filing paperwork because their security checks were moving at a glacial pace, an immigration attorney told The Post.
Refugee camp in Greece quarantined after 20 test positive
The Ritsona refugee camp in Greece, outside of Athens, is on lockdown after 20 asylum seekers there tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the country’s migration ministry said Thursday.
It’s the first confirmed coronavirus outbreak in a refugee camp in Europe. Thousands of migrants and asylum seekers from around the world live in overcrowded and often unhygienic conditions in various camps. Greece became a hot spot for migration during the 2015 migrant crisis.
The Ritsona escalation came days after authorities announced the first case there — a 19-year-old woman who had returned from giving birth in an Athens hospital. Health officials have since been conducting tests on residents.
None of the confirmed cases have shown signs of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, according to Reuters. Authorities have forbidden movement into and out of Ritsona, where hundreds of people live, for the next 14 days.
For weeks, humanitarian groups have been sounding an alarm that conditions in refugee camps in Europe and the Middle East are ripe for a deadly outbreak. Refugee advocates have also called on Greece to evacuate the camps as a precautionary measure.
European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson described the news as a stark “warning signal” of the calamity that could ensue on the Greek islands, where facilities for over 40,000 asylum seekers are less organized, according to Reuters.
“(This) may result in a massive humanitarian crisis,” she said Thursday. “This is a danger both for refugees hosted in certain countries outside the E.U. and for those living in unbearable conditions on the Greek islands.”
Schumer says he hopes McConnell ‘will see the light’ on another stimulus bill
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to drop his resistance to swiftly passing legislation following up on the $2 trillion emergency relief bill aimed at limiting the financial trauma of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think we have to do it, and I hope Leader McConnell will see the light,” Schumer said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that took place as the Labor Department announced a record 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.
“The economy is going to take a long time to recover,” Schumer said, adding that among the provisions he would like to see in a new bill is “hazard pay” for medical workers.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday, McConnell said he would move slowly on considering any follow-up legislation and would ignore the latest efforts by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to jump-start talks, calling that “premature."
‘Enormous gap’ in needed supply of ventilators in Africa with no easy way to get more, WHO warns
There is a severe shortage of ventilators across the African continent to deal with the expected explosion of coronavirus cases and no easy way to get more, the Africa director of the World Health Organization warned Thursday.
Although Africa so far has been largely spared severe outbreaks of covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that has killed tens of thousands in Europe and North America, cases are slowly growing, and local health systems in most cases are much weaker than elsewhere in the world. Dense living conditions in many cities also make social distancing a challenge.
Mathsidiso Moeti of the WHO said while she and her colleagues are gathering information about the actual number of ventilators on the continent, they know the total is too low.
“There is an enormous gap in the numbers of ventilators needed in African countries for this covid outbreak as we see the evolution of cases and the number of countries with local transmission,” she said in an online briefing. She noted this is happening “in the context of a global shortage, and lockdowns that will make transportation of these ventilators a challenge.”
Breathing becomes very difficult in the severe stages of covid-19, and in many cases access to ventilators has made the difference between life and death. The wealthy countries of Europe and North America have struggled to produce enough of these machines to meet the demand, so there is little on the international market for Africa to buy, Moeti added.
South Africa, which has the most advanced health system in Africa and about 1,300 coronavirus cases, is believed to have about 6,000 ventilators, while Ethiopia, with a population of 100 million, has only a few hundred. The Central African Republic, which has been torn by war since 2013, has an estimated three.
Democrats far more pessimistic about the coming month in U.S. than Republicans
Democrats are far more likely to take a pessimistic view about what’s in store for the United States in the next month than Republicans, a new CBS News-YouGov poll finds.
According to the poll, taken Tuesday and Wednesday, 68 percent of Democrats think the coronavirus outbreak will get worse in the next month, compared to 34 percent of Republicans who take that view.
The poll finds that 45 percent of Republicans think the outbreak will get better, while 21 percent think things will stay about the same. By contrast, only 14 percent of Democrats think the outbreak will get better in the next month, and 18 percent think things will stay the same.
Australia temporarily makes child care free, imposes fines for price gouging
Child care in Australia will become completely free for all families, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday, announcing a temporary move meant to allow parents to continue working during the coronavirus outbreak.
The country’s government will spend an estimated $1.6 billion to bail out the struggling sector, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) reported, as huge drops in attendance have forced hundreds of child-care centers to close.
The announcement follows several other dramatic policy shifts in recent days as the novel coronavirus spreads through Australia and rattles its economy.
Earlier this week, the country’s Health Ministry said it would impose massive fines on anyone who tries to illegally export masks and gowns or sell this protective equipment within Australia at jacked-up prices. The country will also halt evictions for six months.
While Morrison had initially said free child care would be offered to allow workers in essential industries to continue, Education Minister Dan Tehan later clarified that all parents, including unemployed ones, would qualify for the program.
“We want as many people being able to work as we possibly can, and we want them to be able to access child care as they need,” Tehan told the ABC.
Cash-strapped parents who have been unable to afford fees have pulled their children out of after-school and day-care programs, along with those worried about health risks. It’s unclear whether and how child-care workers will be provided with protective equipment.
Child-care fees in Australia are already heavily subsidized, but parents will now have the full cost covered as part of the one-month plan, the ABC reported, so the government will effectively be paying for about half the operating costs for all child-care centers.
U.S. economists expect another record number of unemployment claims
New U.S. unemployment figures are set to be released Thursday morning, and economists project the numbers will be staggering — potentially as high as 5.5 million.
A record 3.3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, as businesses shuttered and Americans were told to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. That number easily surpassed the 665,000 jobless claims filed during the worst week of the Great Recession.
Most economists predict between 4 million and 5 million new claims this week, according to CNBC. Morgan Stanley forecast 4.5 million, while Barclays estimated 5 million, and Bank of America put the figure at 5.5 million.
‘Obviously there’s a lot of pressure,’ Fauci says of his work
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert and the face of the U.S. response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, acknowledged Thursday that “there’s a lot of pressure” to get his job right.
Fauci was asked during an appearance on “CBS This Morning” about reports that his security has been stepped up and about how he is handling the intense scrutiny of his work.
“You know, it’s my job,” Fauci said. “This is the life I’ve chosen, and I’m doing it. I mean, obviously there’s a lot of pressure. I’d be foolish to deny that, but that’s what I do. I’ve been through crises like this before, dating back, you know, 37 years, from the very beginning of the HIV epidemic. It’s a job to do, and we’ve just got to do it.”
Co-host Gayle King noted that Fauci’s image is now appearing on doughnuts, socks and mugs and that there’s a petition to make him People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”
“It’s really kind of crazy,” Fauci said. “We try not to pay attention to that and just focus on the responsibility and the job that we have. That’s the most important thing, not that other stuff.”
Chris Cuomo’s ‘haunted’ night with the coronavirus
When the sun came up Wednesday morning, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was already awake. But as Cuomo tells it, his early rising wasn’t by choice.
“I was up all night,” he said during Wednesday’s edition of “Cuomo Prime Time,” broadcast live from his basement where he is now self-quarantining after announcing one day earlier that he tested positive for the coronavirus.
The cause of Cuomo’s insomnia?
“This virus came at me. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cuomo said, telling viewers that he was racked with a fever of around 103 degrees “that wouldn’t quit.”
“It was like somebody was beating me like a piñata,” he continued. “I was shivering so much . . . I chipped my tooth.”
Then, there were the fever-induced hallucinations.
“My dad was talking to me,” a wide-eyed Cuomo said, referring to his late father, former New York governor and revered Democratic Party figure Mario Cuomo, who died in January 2015. “I was seeing people from college, people I haven’t seen in forever. It was freaky what I lived through last night, and it may happen again tonight.”
Read more here.
Deaths in Spain exceed 10,000, unemployment soars with ‘historic’ March rise
MADRID — Spain’s confirmed coronavirus death toll surpassed 10,000 on Thursday, with 950 new fatalities within 24 hours, marking the deadliest day in the outbreak that has cost the country at least 10,003 lives.
The number of confirmed cases in Spain increased by 8,102, reaching a total of 110,238 cases. But the caseload continued to grow at a slower pace than last week, and health officials hope that a nationwide lockdown is having an impact.
Twenty days into the confinement measures, however, the economic fallout is mounting. Spanish Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz said Thursday there has been an “exceptional” month-on-month rise in unemployment, with 302,265 new jobless due to the nationwide lockdown measures adopted in mid-March.
The number is not historic “in terms of the number of unemployed, but in the monthly increase,” Díaz said. “We have registered 3.5 million people receiving unemployment compensation.”
The minister said the service industry is the worst-hit sector, with 206,016 newly unemployed people, followed by the construction sector, with unemployment up 22.92 percent, and the agriculture sector, up 4.26 percent.
Social Security Minister José Luis Escrivá confirmed Spain has lost nearly 900,000 people paying into the system in one month, ending March with 18.4 million affiliated entities.
“We are in an absolutely exceptional situation,” Díaz said. “The month of March, until March 13, proceeded normally. From the 13th, we observe a daily increase in the unemployment figures. The virus isn’t having a specific impact on women, but structurally the labor market is slowing in general. There are 2 million unemployed women.”
Noack reported from Berlin.
A British man ran a marathon in his 20-foot backyard — and thousands tuned in
James Campbell jogged to the end of his fenced-in yard, turning around when he reached the garden shed. He bounded back to the patio, sneakers pounding a small patch of grass. He spun around and repeated the loop again. And again. And again.
More than five hours later, he had run a full marathon in his 20-foot backyard.
Campbell, a former world-class competitive javelin thrower from Cheltenham, England, had been feeling bored and restless while under lockdown because of the novel coronavirus. His Wednesday stunt was “literally the most stupid thing I could think of to do” on his 32nd birthday, he told the BBC. But thousands of people tuned in to watch him run around in circles, and by early Thursday morning, he had raised the equivalent of almost $32,000 for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.
For all the challenges that come with running 26.2 miles, marathoners can usually at least count on staving off boredom with changes in scenery. But the coronavirus has spawned a new kind of athletic feat that requires intense mental toughness as well as physical endurance. Die-hard long-distance runners are now running incredibly short distances — on balconies, around one-bedroom apartments or in backyards — for hours at a time, bearing a strong resemblance to a hamster on a wheel.
Read more here.
Idaho legislator continues holding church services despite stay-at-home order
An Idaho pastor and state lawmaker is continuing to hold in-person services at his church, even after two members of his congregation tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to Spokane’s Spokesman-Review newspaper.
A stay-at-home order from the governor last week did not keep state Rep. Tim Remington (R) from leading services at the Altar church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he warned that the virus was being politicized to take away people’s rights.
“Do you understand that this is a gimmick? It’s a test,” Remington said in his sermon Sunday. “I want to pass the test, so as for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord.”
About 45 worshipers attended the services in person, including some who were sitting next to each other, KREM reported.
A statement on Facebook from the Altar church claimed that the order from Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) “specifically told us that the Church is essential in this time.”
Yet a spokeswoman for the governor, who appointed Remington to his post earlier this year, told the Coeur d’Alene Press that churches are not supposed to be meeting. Anyone found in violation of the governor’s order can be cited with a misdemeanor.
Remington, who has been in contact with the two infected churchgoers, told the Press he plans to continue holding services this weekend — and would face arrest for doing so.
“Many of our rights were just taken out from underneath of us,” Remington said during his sermon. “They have just showed everybody in this nation how because of a flu, okay, they can completely take away all your First Amendment rights.”
At a time of chaos and uncertainty, adorable ‘Wee Granny’ becomes a social media star
The “Wee Granny” video message may have been only 36 seconds long, but it has brought days of joy on social media at a time when people need it most.
“Got this update from my wee granny,” tweeted social media user @Islaanne1, from Edinburgh, Scotland, on Tuesday. “93 and still going strong,” she wrote while sharing a video message, which she said had been recorded by her grandmother.
The video has since been viewed more than 7.5 million times on Twitter and has generated almost half a million likes. It was shared by Irish Health Minister Simon Harris, who urged residents to “follow Granny’s advice here.”
Warm your heart this morning. We all miss our grannies, our families, our friends. Give them a call today and check they’re ok. This will pass and we will prevail. In the mean time follow Granny’s advice here #coronavirus #Covid19 https://t.co/oUh5I4LIE0
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 1, 2020
“Hello, everybody. I’m still here,” Wee Granny said with a chuckle while standing in a doorway. “… There’s no getting rid of me!”
The upbeat grandmother instantly became a hit with Twitter users, who swiftly proclaimed their love for her using the hashtag #WeeGranny to express their admiration and send her well wishes.
Many found her words comforting during a time of lockdowns and global fears about the coronavirus pandemic. “The way she says ‘It will all pass’ is so comforting,” wrote one user. Others sent heart emoji in Wee Granny’s direction — including actor Elijah Wood.
“I hope you’re all keeping well and doing what you’re told,” she said. “Keep to the rules and you’ll all be fine.”
She signed off with the words, “Bye-bye for now. Love you all.”
How a prayer meeting at a French megachurch may have led to scores of deaths
PARIS — The prayer meeting at an evangelical church in Mulhouse, a small city in eastern France near the border with Germany, was just the latest in a series of such annual gatherings going back a generation.
But this year’s meeting — in the words of a regional health official — was “a kind of atomic bomb that went off in the town in late February that we didn’t see.” Someone in the crowd of 2,500 had the novel coronavirus, kicking off what soon became one of Europe’s largest regional clusters of infections, which then quickly spread across the country and eventually overseas.
As of Wednesday, France had reported 56,989 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and the country’s death toll was the fourth-highest in the world at 4,032, including 509 within the past day. And the actual number of fatalities may be higher, because public health authorities were initially not including deaths that occurred outside hospitals in the tally.
As the government desperately tries to contain further spread of the virus with an extended nationwide lockdown and expanded testing, many are asking how France — a country with one of the most vaunted and well-funded public health systems in the world — got to this point.
Read more here.
Japan leader offers families two masks but holds back on implementing lockdown — and is ridiculed
TOKYO — By the government’s own admission, Japan stands on the “edge of edges, the very brink” of a coronavirus crisis, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is resisting growing calls to declare a state of emergency and try to enforce a lockdown.
Instead, he is planning to send every household two small washable cloth masks — and he is being ridiculed for it.
Almost immediately after he announced the plan, wearing a small reusable mask himself, the hashtag “Abenomask,” meaning “Abe’s Mask” became the top trending item on Twitter — a play on his attempt to revitalize the economy known as “Abenomics."
Masks have disappeared from shelves here during the coronavirus epidemic, and many people in East Asia believe they have played an important role in controlling the spread of infection. So Abe’s suggestion did make some sense. But even his supporters wondered if the government’s attention might be better focused on firmer action.
“Is this April Fools’ Day?” novelist and right-wing political commentator Naoki Hyakuta tweeted. “Surely there are other things they could be doing — declaring a state of emergency, reducing sales tax to zero, handing out money or closing pachinko parlors,” he added.
Many other people wondered how families were supposed to ration two masks between an entire household, with one very popular tweet showing the family from the “Sazae-san” animated show sharing their ration between all seven of them.
一世帯に二枚のマスク #贋作 #○○風に時事ネタを振り返ろう pic.twitter.com/43j8zUizyK
— 北村ヂン (@punxjk) April 1, 2020
On Thursday, Tokyo on its own reported 97 new coronavirus infections, a record high.
Ministry of Health data show 266 new infections nationally on Wednesday, also a record, bringing the cumulative total to 2,495 cases with 70 deaths, excluding cases and fatalities from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Philippine ambassador to Lebanon dies of coronavirus
MANILA — The Philippine ambassador to Lebanon died of complications arising from the coronavirus, the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
Bernardita M. Catalla, a career diplomat of 27 years, died at 12:30 a.m. in a hospital in Beirut, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Twitter.
Catalla previously served in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Hong Kong. She spearheaded a mass repatriation program for Filipinos in December last year amid an economic crisis in Lebanon.
Locsin said Catalla bade him goodbye on March 9. “I promised her Paris so she’d hang on,” he said in a tweet. “But she just laughed, ‘Now I must learn French.’”
Lebanon has recorded 479 cases of covid-19 and 12 deaths. The Beirut airport is closed for commercial passenger flights until at least April 12. U.S. citizens and permanent residents who wish to fly out must take a chartered flight on April 5.
The Philippines has more than 2,300 covid-19 cases and almost 100 deaths. As of Monday, 401 Filipinos had caught the virus abroad, across 32 countries.
Sarah Dadouch in Beirut contributed to this report.
In Ecuador’s largest city, morgues are full and bodies are left on the streets
The dead bodies in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, have been piling up everywhere. They have been abandoned in busy hospitals, left decomposing inside homes, even wrapped in plastic and put out on the streets.
As Guayaquil has emerged as the main flash point of the country’s novel coronavirus outbreak, the sight of these corpses has underscored how the port city of nearly 3 million is struggling to handle the mounting death toll.
Authorities have officially reported more than 1,300 infections and at least 60 deaths in and around Guayaquil. But the country has experienced a severe lag in testing, and the death toll is believed to be far higher. Up to 150 corpses are being picked up every day, said Jorge Wated, leader of a crisis task force. The municipal morgue is full, and families have lined up to arrange burial services in crowded cemeteries.
Mayor Cynthia Viteri said Tuesday in a Twitter video that four large refrigerated trailers would be distributed around area hospitals this week to serve as temporary morgues, and plans for a new cemetery are in the works.
Yet Viteri, who announced she has tested positive herself, also said last week that the national government should be responsible for collecting the corpses, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“They’re leaving them in the villages; they fall in front of hospitals,” she said. “No one wants to recover them.”
Ecuador has reported more infections and deaths than almost anywhere else in Latin America. More than half of people tested in recent days have turned out to be positive, according to local media reports.
Authorities placed tight restrictions on travel by mid-March, but Guayaquil’s residents were slow to take these rules seriously, the Times reported.
Sparks fly as Britain’s tabloids and lawmakers call out ‘testing scandal’
LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government faced widespread criticism Thursday over a continued lack of coronavirus testing.
Angry tabloid headlines emerged after it was revealed that many health-care workers battling to save lives and defeat the virus were still not being tested, despite the government’s repeated promises. On Wednesday, Johnson, who has tested positive for the virus himself, said the government was “massively increasing testing.”
Of 550,000 National Health Service (NHS) staff, “only 2,000” have been tested, said a front-page headline in the Daily Mail. The front page of the Daily Mirror read: “SHAMBLES.” The Mirror also paid tribute to medics who have died, and it shared a photograph of a deserted testing station in Surrey, England.
“Questions without answers,” said the Telegraph, as it called out officials for a flawed testing system that “lags behind other nations.”
On Thursday, Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy said the government’s handling of the crisis was “nowhere near good enough,” adding: “We can only defeat this virus if we know who has got it and who does not.”
The chaos follows a period of uncertainty in the country, with those suffering from symptoms unable to get tested and doctors and nurses who don’t know their covid-19 status debating whether they should continue going to work and potentially expose patients, or self-isolate at home as a precaution at a time when the NHS desperately needs them.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that several hospitals across the country have complained of a lack of swabs available to test doctors and nurses and limited access to testing kits.
Death in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, raises alarms about coronavirus spread in India
NEW DELHI — The death of a middle-aged man in Mumbai’s neighborhood of Dharavi, considered Asia’s largest slum, has left officials worried about the contagious disease ripping through the city’s poorest.
The victim, a garment shop owner, developed a fever and cough on March 23 and was given basic treatment by a private and government doctor since he had not reported a history of foreign travel.
The building he lived in, consisting of 300 apartments and 90 shops, has been sealed by authorities as they race to track from where he may have picked up the novel coronavirus. On Tuesday, a sanitation worker on duty in Dharavi tested positive as well.
Dharavi, a cluster of compressed tin-shacks and some taller buildings, has a population density of 320,000 people per square mile. Experts have said that practicing social distancing is impossible in areas like Dharavi.
“We are worried,” said Kiran Dighavkar, a senior civic official in charge of the area. “We are readying an institutional quarantine facility for Dharavi today where all close contacts will be shifted.”
With 335 cases and 13 deaths, Maharashtra, the state of which Mumbai is the capital, has the highest number of cases in the country. India, which has 1,965 cases, has seen a sharp surge in the past two days after the emergence of a super-spreader religious gathering of Muslims. The country has instituted a harsh lockdown but struggled with planning and implementation.
As more states look to ban abortion during pandemic, legal battles erupt across U.S.
SAN ANTONIO — A growing number of states are seeking to ban abortion during the novel coronavirus-related public health emergency by classifying it as an unnecessary medical procedure, sparking legal battles nationwide.
A federal appeals court ruled this week that Texas, one of the first states to enact such a ban, can temporarily prohibit abortions from taking place. The ruling came fewer than 24 hours after a federal judge in Austin lifted the statewide restriction on abortions that went into effect after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an executive order March 22 halting all procedures that were not “immediately medical necessary” to save a life. Attorney General Ken Paxton later said those include abortion.
The seesawing rulings come as more states try to take the same approach as Texas, and abortion rights groups are increasingly taking states to court.
Read more here.
Analysis: A coronavirus test for anyone? In Iceland, it’s possible.
In coronavirus hot spots around the globe, hospitals are so overwhelmed with sick patients that they’re running out of lifesaving supplies. And in many places, testing for the virus has been reserved for people who meet specific medical and travel-related criteria.
But one of the challenges that has made the pandemic so difficult to control is that research increasingly suggests a large number of people infected with the virus may show no symptoms — as many as 25 percent, according to U.S. officials. That means that in places with limited testing, doctors and scientists know they are missing people who are infected with the virus — and may be spreading it to others.
So what if anyone could be tested?
That’s what scientists in Iceland are now trying to make happen — and they hope their approach could yield important insights that will not only help the country handle its own outbreak more efficiently, but also help researchers elsewhere.
In late February, Iceland confirmed its first case of the virus: a patient who had recently returned home after a trip to Italy. Over the next several weeks, as the pandemic seeped into communities around the world, other cases began to pop up across the island, home to about 364,000 people.
Icelandic officials quickly embarked on an ambitious contact-tracing initiative that helped identify and isolate individuals who had come into contact with people diagnosed with the virus — and urged them into isolation.
Read more here.
Fears grow of a crackdown in the Philippines as citizens air coronavirus grievances
MANILA — After Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on authorities to shoot and kill quarantine violators, his critics now fear an online crackdown.
Chel Diokno of the Free Legal Assistance Group, an organization of human rights lawyers, shared on Twitter Thursday a document indicating the National Bureau of Investigation — the country’s FBI-equivalent agency — had summoned someone over a Facebook post. Investigators wrote the summons had to do with an article the individual posted about the alleged misuse of government funds.
“I took on this case because what is happening is inhumane,” Diokno wrote. “So many people, including frontliners, are dying, but instead of [eliminating] covid, they want to eliminate critics.”
Human rights lawyer @ChelDiokno reveals the National Bureau of Investigation 'is now going after even ordinary citizens for simply airing their sentiments on the government’s response to COVID-19 on social media' | @anjocalimario pic.twitter.com/Bx5jQEPb3U
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) April 2, 2020
The NBI didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment from The Washington Post. But an official from the agency told local media that the NBI had issued more than a dozen subpoenas as part of a probe of misinformation.
Duterte’s lockdown of half the country, which has left thousands jobless, is facing criticism. There are also growing concerns of human rights violations. On Wednesday night, the president warned people not to be “unruly.”
Within two hours of his speech, a man on neighborhood watch duty in Manila was gunned down by men on motorcycles, local broadcaster ABS-CBN reported.
A law granting Duterte emergency powers in response to the pandemic also provides jail time and up to $19,600 in fines for “sharing false information.”
The concern surrounding a possible online crackdown also comes a day after #OustDuterte became a top trend on Twitter. On Thursday, pro-government accounts began tweeting #istandwiththepresident. In the Philippines, such political support online is largely manufactured.
The Philippines does not have a law punishing “fake news,” so experts say the provision punishing false information could be void — but it could also be dangerous.
Other countries in the region, including Cambodia and Singapore, have used the spread of the coronavirus to justify using similar laws — and that may have consequences beyond the pandemic.
Switching grocery brands can help low-income shoppers, advocates say
As the coronavirus pandemic empties supermarket shelves and leaves many Americans without an income, some advocates and officials are warning shoppers to check the labels on their grocery purchase — or avoid the supermarket entirely, especially this week.
Several federal assistance programs, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), distribute benefits to low-income families at the beginning of each month.
That means that supermarkets could be especially packed this week, they say, as some of the neediest shoppers try and stock up on food items covered under WIC, like cereal, eggs and beans and other staples.
But strict rules limit kinds of groceries, brands and even package sizes can be bought through the program, which distributes checks, cards and vouchers to low-income mothers who are pregnant and breastfeeding or parents of children under age 5. If the brand for a certain item is sold out at a supermarket, WIC users will not be able to purchase that type of food entirely.
Posts on social media in recent days have encouraged other shoppers to avoid buying WIC-eligible groceries, which are marked by a label on supermarket shelves underneath the product.
When stocking up for #SocialDistancing, if an item has a WIC symbol beside the price, get something else. People who use WIC to feed their kids can't switch to another brand or kind of food. If a store runs out of WIC-approved options, they will go home empty-handed.#mepolitics pic.twitter.com/oFRts6Rcbc
— Suit Up Maine (@SuitUpMaine) March 16, 2020
WIC benefits were granted to about 6.87 million people during fiscal year 2018, but advocates believe that figure is likely to skyrocket soon given the record number of unemployment claims filed last month.
A USDA spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that individual states can modify their WIC restrictions as long as they meet federal standards, while legislation passed in Congress allows them to submit waiver requests to include even more grocery options.
Others, however, have cautioned that other safety-net programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, stagger benefits throughout the month based on factors like case numbers or a recipient’s birthdate or last name.
Trump called Russia’s coronavirus aid ‘very nice.’ Putin may use it as a propaganda coup.
MOSCOW — When Russia announced it was sending the world’s biggest cargo plane, an Antonov-124, to the United States loaded with medical aid, President Trump called it “very nice.”
But others wonder if the real beneficiary is the Kremlin, leveraging a chance for some pandemic propaganda.
The Russian military flight took off Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced, but it gave no details on what kind of equipment the plane was carrying. The Trump administration also has not elaborated on the aid from Russia — or on how much else could be coming from other countries. The Russian plane arrived at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday afternoon local time.
“China sent us some stuff, which was terrific. Russia sent us a very, very large planeload of things, medical equipment, which was very nice,” Trump told reporters Monday, apparently mistaken that the Russian plane had already arrived.
A former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, tweeted that a photograph published by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of thousands of cardboard boxes stacked in a plane hold was a “hoax” because “no professional Loadmaster in the world . . . in any air force . . . would load a plane like this.”
“But it’s a gift TO the Kremlin, not FROM it, if it is true,” he added.
Read more here.
Wisconsin holding elections next week amid fears of infection and voting chaos
In Tuesday’s Wisconsin elections, more than 100 municipalities will not have enough poll workers to open a single voting location. Tens of thousands of voters who have flooded election offices with mail-ballot requests in recent days are at risk of not receiving them on time. And Sally Cohen, an elderly woman with kidney disease and asthma who is self-isolating in her apartment in Madison, isn’t sure she’ll be able to vote at all because of a state law requiring a witness to sign her ballot envelope.
“I was just distraught this morning when I opened it and saw that you have to have a witness,” said Cohen, who is 77 and a retired paralegal. “I thought, ‘I just can’t do it.’ They suggested having the mailman look through the picture window, but I’m on the third floor, so that won’t work.”
Voters, election officials and civil rights leaders across Wisconsin are angry that the state legislature is going forward with the April 7 presidential primary and local elections even as the novel coronavirus continues its march across the country. The public health risk is too high, and asking voters to venture out of their homes directly contradicts state and local emergency orders to shelter in place, they say.
Leaders in the Republican-controlled legislature say that moving the voting date so late in the process would sow confusion and create a leadership vacuum in cities and towns holding contests for municipal posts that will be vacant as early as mid-April.
Read more here.
Israel’s health minister tests positive for the coronavirus
JERUSALEM — Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has contracted the novel coronavirus, a statement from his ministry said Thursday.
Litzman, 71, who heads the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party and is a follower of the Gur Hasidic sect, has been health minister for most of the past nine years. He has worked closely with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials to confront the pandemic as it unfolds in Israel.
Figures released Wednesday by the Health Ministry showed that the coronavirus has spread particularly fast and wide in the country’s ultra-Orthodox community. In a breakdown of cities, Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, just outside of Tel Aviv, both with large ultra-Orthodox populations, have the highest number of cases.
This week, Israeli police have clamped down harder on their neighborhoods as many continue to hold communal prayers and leave their homes in contradiction of coronavirus regulations.
The statement from Litzman’s office said that his wife had also contracted the virus, but that both were feeling well and being treated. Messages were sent to those who came into contact with the minister and his wife in the past two weeks telling them to self-isolate in keeping with ministry guidelines, the announcement said.
Litzman has met with many of the country’s top officials, including Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad. The Health Ministry director general, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, who has been leading the country’s battle against the coronavirus, said Thursday he was isolating himself.
Netanyahu, who earlier this week self-isolated after his adviser on ultra-Orthodox affairs was diagnosed with the coronavirus, was sent back into quarantine, even though he earlier tested negative for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a statement from his office said. There is some 6,211 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Israel and 32 fatalities, according to the Health Ministry numbers.
Chinese county locked down over infection fears, even as hot-spots open up
A Chinese county that is home to 600,000 people went into lockdown this week, amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections, even as other parts of the country try to open up.
Residents in Jia county in Henan province, which borders the epicenter of Hubei province to the north, have been told they must stay in their apartments unless they have a note from their employer certifying that they need to go to work. Civil servants are banned from leaving the county unless necessary.
All businesses other than those deemed essential such as supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies and gas stations have been ordered to close, according to a notice issued by Jia county’s epidemic control headquarters.
Households will be allowed to send one person out every two days to buy supplies, according to the South China Morning Post, which first reported the news of the lockdown.
These measures echo restrictions put in place in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, when it first went into lockdown. But they buck the trend around the rest of the country, where even Wuhan is beginning to resume normal life after more than two months under strict lockdown.
It is driven by fears of a new spike in coronavirus infections.
Two doctors from Jia County People’s Hospital were tested for coronavirus after coming into contact with another doctor who had returned from Wuhan, even though that doctor completed 14 days of home isolation before returning to work. They tested positive on Saturday, despite having no symptoms.
Navy to remove 2,700 sailors from aircraft carrier struggling with coronavirus in Guam
The Navy plans to remove about 2,700 sailors from an aircraft carrier in Guam afflicted by the novel coronavirus within days, senior Navy officials said Wednesday, as government officials on the island worked to secure hotel rooms for many of them.
The move comes after a letter written by the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, circulated in the news media, drew attention to the service’s response to the situation.
The commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, wrote that “decisive action is required,” “sailors do not need to die” and that if the Navy didn’t act, it was “failing to properly to take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.”
Acting Navy secretary Thomas B. Modly told reporters that nearly 1,000 sailors have left the ship so far for testing and quarantining.
As of Wednesday, 93 sailors from the carrier had tested positive for the virus and 593 tested negative, Modly said. Seventy-six percent of the crew of more than 4,800 still needed to be tested, he said.
Asked about Crozier’s letter, Modly said senior Navy officials “understand this is a very unusual circumstance.” But he disagreed with any assessment that the Navy might not take care of its sailors.
Read more here.
German data shows 6,156 new cases, 140 new deaths
Germany now has 73,522 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 6,156, according to data compiled by the Robert Koch Institute and released Thursday.
The Institute, a government-run agency and Germany’s disease control center, also recorded 140 new deaths, bringing the total death toll so far to 872.
Germany has a high number of cases compared with other countries, but its death toll lags behind nations with fewer recorded cases — a detail that health experts have suggested comes from expanded testing in the country.
Virologist Christian Drosten told the Associated Press this week that Germany was now capable of testing 500,000 people a week.
Philippines’ Duterte says police should shoot and kill anyone who fights lockdown
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police and military to shoot and kill anyone who violates the novel coronavirus lockdown in the country.
“If there is trouble or the situation arises that people fight and your lives are on the line, shoot them dead,” Duterte said according to local news site Rappler. “Do you understand? Dead. Instead of causing trouble, I’ll send you to the grave.”
Duterte made the remarks in a televised address late on Wednesday, in which he pushed the country to stick to lockdown measures to help slow the spread of the novel coroanvirus.
The Philippine leader also said he also would ask the police to punish people who attack doctors and health workers, saying they should be forced to drink toxic liquids.
There are currently 2,300 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines, with almost 100 deaths. The country has been on lockdown since last month, but some workers have suggested that the government needs to do more for those who can no longer earn money.
Hours before Duterte spoke, more than 20 protesters in Quezon City had been arrested after demanding food aid, Rappler reported.
How coronavirus grounded the airline industry
In December, Wuhan, one of China’s largest industrial hubs, reported its first cases of covid-19. As the infection started to spread, countries across East Asia, including Japan, Malaysia and Thailand, restricted flights to China and South Korea to prevent further transmission.
In March, air traffic waned throughout the Middle East. Egypt, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia closed their major airports. Turkey banned air travel from most European countries.
Flights over Europe nearly evaporated as covid-19 swept through northern Italy, forcing EasyJet, Ryanair and Lufthansa to cut flights by at least 80 percent.
On March 13, President Trump announced sweeping restrictions on travel from more than two dozen European countries.
The aviation industry’s unprecedented free fall from the coronavirus pandemic already has forced some airlines into bankruptcy, and others are on the brink.
Read more here.
Biden says Democratic convention may have to move to August
The Democratic National Convention will likely be pushed to a later date in the summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D) said late on Wednesday.
“I doubt whether the Democratic convention is going to be able to be held in mid-July, early July,” he said in a webcam interview on “The Tonight Show.” “I think it’s going to have to move into August.”
His comments, made in a wide-ranging conversation with late-night host Jimmy Fallon, mark the second time in recent days that Biden has raised doubts about the timing of the Milwaukee convention, which is scheduled for July 13 to 16.
The former vice president also told Fallon that both major political parties must be prepared for alternative options and changes throughout the election, including shifts to more mail-in voting.
And he criticized President Trump’s response to the outbreak, calling for ramped-up testing and more protective equipment for health workers.
“The president waited too long to start taking it seriously,” Biden said. “Only yesterday at his press conference did the president grasp the reality of what he’s facing."
He also said that Trump should invoke the Defense Production Act to order manufacturers to make more masks and gowns, not just more ventilators.
Yet Biden praised the governors of New York and Ohio for pushing back against Trump and suggested that every state will eventually have to impose statewide orders telling all residents to stay home.
Federal officials scramble to ensure tech glitches, bureaucracy don’t delay $1,200 coronavirus checks
U.S. officials are scrambling to stand up a new system to send coronavirus stimulus checks to millions of Americans, raising fresh fears that technical glitches and mismanagement could undermine a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s economic-recovery effort.
The $2 trillion law signed by the president last week calls for payments to be made “as rapidly as possible,” as the U.S. government looks to put much-needed cash in the hands of people who are out of work, struggling to pay their bills or in desperate need of food and other supplies in the midst of a deadly outbreak.
But the Treasury Department’s ability to meet that congressional mandate hinges on systems it is still bringing online. In a matter of days, federal officials must craft a website for some people to enter their banking information, beef up their security so that malicious actors can’t steal sensitive financial data, and brace to be bombarded by questions from Americans who aren’t sure what they’re owed and how to obtain the money.
Read more here.
A new rallying cry among America’s working class: No one should pay rent until the coronavirus pandemic ends
After losing his job as a restaurant cook last month, Casey James began contacting his Atlanta neighbors with an idea: No one should pay rent until the coronavirus pandemic ends.
Going door-to-door in some cases, James, 28, estimates he has talked to nearly 200 people. If everyone refused to pay, it would be harder for landlords to evict anyone, protecting those who had recently lost their jobs, he told them. “The reception has been total support; I was really surprised,” James said.
April 1 has loomed as a turning point in the coronavirus economic fallout for the country’s more than 40 million renters and 30 million small business owners. With millions laid off due to the pandemic, some are pulling money from their savings accounts, borrowing money from friends to pay rent or attempting to negotiate deals with their landlords.
Even some large retailers are balking at paying their April rent. The Cheesecake Factory has said it won’t be paying April’s rent for its nearly 300 restaurants across the country due to the coronavirus. Wendy’s is deferring rent payment on properties it leases to franchisees by 50 percent over the next 90 days.
The Washington Post interviewed small business owners and laid-off workers across the country about how they’re dealing with the economic challenge of paying rent with little to no income. Whether they’re renting commercial property to run a restaurant or a one-bedroom apartment to live in, renters said the options offered by their landlords were limited and could leave them in worse financial condition later.
Read more here.
Analysis: Data shows we’ve found a new normal. That doesn’t mean we’ve hit bottom.
Life in many U.S. cities has settled into a new, stuck-at-home routine. Activity in public, measured by demand for public transit, has leveled off at about 30 percent of where it used to be. It could stay this way for months.
In this data-starved environment, public-transit demand is a relatively well-focused lens with which to view the pandemic’s economic effect. The coronavirus recession was caused, at its heart, by one thing: the end of in-person economic activity, particularly in locked-down densely populated areas. The economy is in free-fall, because people can’t go anywhere, from work or school to pubs and ballgames. That’s what transit measures.
Mass transit is centered in the cities hit hardest in the pandemic’s early phase, and it serves many of the low-income service workers who, early on, bore the brunt of the epidemic. Just as important, transit data is extremely responsive to government restrictions, which vaporized economic activity in the name of saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
From March 9 to March 23, activity on U.S. transit systems went from normal to just 31 percent of the usual level, according to the Transit app, which millions use to check for the next train or plan their bus transfers. In the week-plus since March 23, it has stuck at about 30 percent.
Protective gear in national stockpile is nearly depleted, DHS officials say
The government’s emergency stockpile of respirator masks, gloves and other medical supplies is running low and is nearly exhausted due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving the Trump administration and the states to compete for personal protective equipment in a freewheeling global marketplace rife with profiteering and price-gouging, according to Department of Homeland Security officials involved in the frantic acquisition effort.
As coronavirus hot spots flare from coast to coast, the demand for safety equipment — also known as personal protective equipment (PPE) — is both immediate and widespread, with health officials, hospital executives and governors saying that their shortages are critical and that health-care workers are putting their lives at risk while trying to help the surging number of patients.
Two DHS officials said the stores kept in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Strategic National Stockpile are nearly gone.
During Wednesday’s White House briefing, President Trump confirmed the stockpile is nearly depleted, telling reporters his administration has sent supplies “directly to hospitals.”
Read more here.
U.S. coronavirus deaths surge past 4,600 as officials start to compare struggle with Italy’s outbreak
Coronavirus deaths in the United States passed 4,600 Wednesday as Vice President Pence issued an ominous warning that America’s situation is most comparable to Italy’s struggle with the virus, which has pushed that nation’s hospitals to capacity and has left more than 13,000 people dead despite a weeks-long lockdown.
The prediction was among a fresh batch of reminders that as the United States makes its agonizing march toward the peak of the covid-19 pandemic, each day will bring more suffering than the last.
In total, the nation added at least 900 virus-related deaths to its overall tally on Wednesday, as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose to more than 211,000. State officials warned their hospitals might soon run short on needed masks, gowns and ventilators, and Homeland Security officials acknowledged the federal government’s emergency stockpile of supplies also was nearly exhausted.
The virus also continued to ravage social life and the economy in America and across the world. A day after the White House warned that the country should be prepared for hundreds of thousands of deaths, the stock market continued its historic plunge. President Trump said Wednesday that officials were “looking at” potential flight restrictions between hard-hit areas of the United States, though he noted that it would be difficult to entirely suspend air travel.
“I am looking where flights are going into hot spots,” Trump said.
The president also seemed to resist the idea of a nationwide stay-at-home order even as individual states that had been holding out — including Florida — decided to require residents to remain at home and to avoid gatherings to prevent viral spread. Many of the nation’s most-populous areas are hunkered down, with people allowed to leave their homes only for essential errands, isolated exercise and emergencies.
Read more here.