Coronavirus live updates: Big unemployment numbers; stimulus checks on the way; US death toll nears 15,000 - USA TODAY
Coronavirus live updates: Big unemployment numbers; stimulus checks on the way; US death toll nears 15,000 - USA TODAY |
- Coronavirus live updates: Big unemployment numbers; stimulus checks on the way; US death toll nears 15,000 - USA TODAY
- Live Coronavirus News Updates: Unemployment Soars - The New York Times
- Coronavirus live updates: U.S. deaths near 15,000 as NY reports more cases than any country - NBC News
- Studies Show N.Y. Outbreak Originated in Europe - The New York Times
- Live updates: U.S. death toll climbs, but signs emerge that new coronavirus cases may be leveling off; unemployment claims soar - The Washington Post
| Posted: 09 Apr 2020 05:50 AM PDT CLOSE  As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Americans wonder if the illnesses they had earlier this year were actually a result of the novel coronavirus. USA TODAY U.S. stocks surged higher despite mind-numbing jobless numbers while some Americans could begin receiving stimulus checks Thursday. The Dow was up more than 300 points. The Labor Department reported a startling 6.6 million initial claims for unemployment insurance. And the saddest numbers: The U.S. death toll from the pandemic rocking the globe was nearing 15,000, with more than 430,000 confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. Worldwide, there are close to 1.5 million confirmed cases and more than 88,500 deaths. Also Thursday, astronauts launched for the International Space Station after a "strict quarantine." And the Trump administration loosened restrictions on essential workers. Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inbox with The Daily Briefing. More headlines: • The US has a shortage of face masks amid coronavirus pandemic. A USA TODAY investigation shows why. • A bridge between life and death:Most COVID-19 patients put on ventilators will not survive • Are you homeschooling during coronavirus quarantine?Moms, teachers share ideas and advice. • A side of toilet paper to go?Some restaurants are serving up more than meals during coronavirus crisis. • Authorities say fake cops are taking advantage of coronavirus travel restrictions to illegally stop drivers. • Support these brands:Here are 20 retailers that are giving back during the pandemic CLOSE Congress has passed, President Trump has signed, a $2 trillion stimulus bill that includes checks to taxpayers. Here's how to see what you might get. USA TODAY Unemployment claims near record as layoffs continue to surgeMore than 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment benefit claims for the first time last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, reflecting another surge in layoffs and an economy that has continued to shut down to minimize further contagion. The previous week's record 6.65 million jobless claims total was revised up by 219,000 to a new all-time high of 6.86 million. Economists had estimated that 5.5 million workers filed initial claims last week, according to a Bloomberg survey. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.1% for the week ending March 28. "There are reasons to think this is only the beginning," says economist Jesse Edgerton of JPMorgan Chase. – Paul Davidson Attorney General Barr calls lockdowns 'draconian'Attorney General William Barr called the restrictions in effect in many states to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus "draconian" and said Wednesday they should be revisited next month. Asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about the balance between religious freedoms and the need to protect people, Barr said the federal government would be "keeping a careful eye" on states' use of broad powers to regulate the lives of their citizens. Officials, Barr said, should be "very careful to make sure...that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of protecting people." – Nicholas Wu Americans could start receiving stimulus payments todayMuch-awaited stimulus cash will begin flooding into millions of bank accounts next week in the first wave of payouts to shore up the nation's wallets. Millions of taxpayers will begin receiving the extra money to pay rent, groceries and other bills next week, or possibly as early as Thursday or Friday. The first group – estimated to cover 50 million to 60 million Americans – would include people who have already given their bank account information to the Internal Revenue Service. The first group also would include Social Security beneficiaries who filed federal tax returns that included direct deposit information, according to an alert put out today by U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell's announcement said the expectation is that the first direct deposits would hit in mid-April, likely the week beginning April 13. – Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press US stocks continue surge after ; Asian shares mixedU.S. stocks were on the rise again Thursday, one day after the Dow Jones industrial Average raced 779.71 points higher to close at 23,433.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 3.4% Wednesday to end at 2,749.98, driven by gains in beaten down energy, real estate and utility shares. The broad index has jumped nearly 23% since it hit a low two and a half weeks ago. Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a 3.4% gain on Wall Street as investors chose a positive focus for data about the coronavirus outbreak's trajectory. The prospect for progress in talks among oil producers was a big driver of Wednesday's rally, along with the signs of virus infections leveling off in several global hotspots and increased clarity in the U.S. presidential race, said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. Studies suggest virus spread in New York came from EuropeThe new coronavirus began spreading in New York in February and came to the area via travelers from Europe, new research suggests. Two separate teams of scientists studying the genetics of the virus came to similar conclusions: People were spreading the virus weeks before the first confirmed case in New York. "So far, the majority seem to be coming from Europe, and this is in part I think because there was a focus on stopping travel from China," Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told AFP. Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who led the other research team, told the New York Times: "The majority is clearly European." The first case of the new coronavirus confirmed in New York came on March 1. On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump said he would restrict entry to the United States from those traveling from China. On March 11, Trump said he was restricting travel from Europe. – Ryan W. Miller Virus could be ticket to freedom for some elderly inmatesThe coronavirus pandemic has forced prison officials to confront difficult questions about who gets to spend the rest of their days outside prison walls. Attorney General William Barr has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to move vulnerable inmates to home confinement. The elderly – most at risk of getting sick and dying of the virus – have been the fastest-growing population in federal and state prison systems, in part because of lengthy, mandatory sentences. Now worried families and advocates want them released. "People change. People age out of crime, especially violent crime. That's a young man's game," said Kevin Ring, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. – Kristine Phillips Another potential coronavirus vaccine, this time without the deep injectionAnother trial is underway to test the safety of a possible vaccine for the new coronavirus, and those who fear needles may be in luck: It uses a skin-deep shot that would feel like a small pinch instead of a deep jab. The trial aims to give 40 healthy volunteers in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Missouri, two doses of the potential vaccine, INO-4800, four weeks apart. Similar to another clinical trial that began testing for safety in Seattle last month, the potential vaccine does not rely on using the virus itself. Inovio Pharmaceuticals' trial, instead, injects a piece of synthetic DNA with a section of the virus' genetic code. The Seattle trial relies on messenger RNA. After the shot, volunteers are given a brief electrical pulse that allows the synthetic DNA to more easily enter the body. Dozens of other potential vaccines are being developed around the world, but it could be more than a year to 18 months before a vaccine is widely available, public health officials have said. - Ryan W. Miller Italian PM: COVID-19 could break EU; Italy may soon ease lockdownThe European Union could collapse if it fails to come together over financial challenges presented by the coronavirus, Italy's prime minister said. Giuseppe Conte and some other EU leaders are pressing more frugal members of the bloc to issue so-called "corona bonds" - sharing debt that all EU nations would help to pay off. The Netherlands is among nations that have opposed the plan. "If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real," Conte told the BBC. Conte also said Italy may start to gradually ease the world's most restrictive national lockdown. The number of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have started to decline across the country in recent days. Italy has reported more than 17,000 deaths, the most of any nation, and almost 140,000 confirmed cases. Astronauts blast off for ISS despite pandemicThe coronavirus pandemic is forcing people to stay home, but three astronauts are set to experience a different type of isolation and quarantine – in space. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his fellow crewmates, Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, blasted off aboard the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft at 4:05 a.m. ET from Kazakhstan for a six-hour journey to the International Space Station. Russian space officials have taken extra precautions to protect the crew during training and pre-flight preparations as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world. Speaking to journalists via video link Wednesday, Cassidy said the crew has been in "a very strict quarantine" for the past month and so in good health. "We all feel fantastic," he said. – Associated Press British Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes 'steady progress'Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third night in intensive care being treated for coronavirus and is in stable condition and "improving," his office said. Johnson had a "good night" in the hospital, a Downing Street statement said. However, Britain's leader, 55, is still on oxygen and has handed over day-to-day operations of his government Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Johnson's wife, Carrie Symonds, is pregnant and also suffered symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. Earlier this week, Symonds tweeted that she was feeling stronger and "on the mend." – Kim Hjelmgaard More coronavirus news and information from USA TODAY• Does COVID-19 have new symptoms?We checked the facts, and it's true. • Your coronavirus questions, answered:How many people have recovered? Do I need to wear gloves, too? Does UV light kill COVID-19? • Take a (virtual) field trip: Go to Jamaica, Walt Disney World, Georgia Aquarium and more. • Toilet paper production is 24/7 these days. So, why can't we find it at stores? • Black people are overwhelmingly dying from coronavirus. Nobody knows why. • Is coronavirus spreading 'quickly' on gas pumps:Here are the facts. Feds loosen virus rules to let essential workers returnIn a first, small step toward reopening the country, the Trump administration issued new guidelines to make it easier for essential workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 to get back to work if they do not have symptoms of the coronavirus. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Wednesday at the White House that essential employees, such as health care and food supply workers, who have been within 6 feet of a confirmed or suspected case of the virus can return to work under certain circumstances if they are not experiencing symptoms. – Associated Press CLOSE The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance for essential workers as it takes a small step toward reopening the country. (April 8) AP Domestic House Oversight: 90% of federal PPE stockpile depletedAccording to new documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, 90% of the federal personal protective equipment stockpile had been depleted as the Health and Human Services Department made its "final shipments" of N95 respirators, surgical and face masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves. The remaining 10%, HHS said, would be reserved for federal workers and would not be sent to the states. The documents, which report the distribution of personal protective equipment to state and local governments, show that only 11.7 million N95 respirator masks have been distributed across the nation, and only 7,920 ventilators have been distributed — both small fractions of the estimated amount of protective equipment needed by frontline medical workers. – Nicholas Wu Most COVID-19 patients put on ventilators will not surviveWhile governors, mayors and hospital officials conduct much-publicized life-and-death struggles to acquire ventilators, for most COVID-19 patients the oxygen-providing apparatus will merely serve as a bridge from life to death. Dennis Carroll, who led the U.S. Agency for International Development's infectious disease unit for more than a decade, told USA TODAY perhaps one-third of COVID-19 patients on ventilators survive. But for many, ventilators represent their last chance. "If you were one of the one-third, I suspect you'd be very appreciative that that capability was available," Carroll said. Some patients may be on a ventilator for only a few hours or days, but experts say COVID-19 patients often remain on the ventilators for 10 days or more. – John Bacon More coronavirus news from USA TODAY• Mapping coronavirus:Tracking the U.S. outbreak, state by state. • When will life return to normal? U.S. testing is too far behind to know, says one expert. • How the 50 states are responding to coronavirus: And why eight states haven't issued stay-at-home orders. • 'Scotch tape and baling wire':How some hospitals and companies are responding to meet America's ventilator shortage. • You're not 'too busy' to stay active: Health experts worry about inactivity during coronavirus quarantine. Contributing: Paul Davidson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/09/coronavirus-live-updates-stimulus-checks-us-deaths-unemployment-claims/2970660001/  |
| Live Coronavirus News Updates: Unemployment Soars - The New York Times Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:45 AM PDT  Here's what you need to know:Image  16 million have filed for jobless benefits in the last three weeks.Another 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week as the coronavirus outbreak continued its devastating march through American businesses and jobs, the Labor Department reported Thursday. With astonishing swiftness, the pandemic has shut down both longstanding and new businesses, leaving veteran workers and recent hires in nearly every type of industry without a paycheck. In just three weeks, more than 16 million Americans have lost their jobs — more losses than the most recent recession produced over two years. At the same time, the Federal Reserve on Thursday announced another round of emergency measures to help the economy. The central bank said it would use Treasury Department funds to buy municipal bonds and expand its purchases of corporate bonds. The efforts are aimed at shoring up companies as well as state and local governments whose budgets are straining under the cost of the pandemic. Across the United States, more and more people cannot pay rent. Food banks are so crowded the National Guard has been called out to stuff boxes. Construction sites sit abandoned, shopping malls are ghost towns and roughly 80 percent of hotel rooms stand empty. But with no vaccine, no reliable drug therapies and no widely available test to tell who might have been exposed to the virus, "shelter at home" orders remain the only reliable tool in slowing the spread. Mindful of that, public health officials warned that, in most places, now was not the time to ease up. Even though more than 1,000 people are now dying every day in the United States, new infections have slowed in places where stringent restrictions have been in place for more than two weeks. But the virus has officially reached more than two-thirds of the nation's rural counties, with one in 10 reporting at least one death. Wayne County, Mich., which includes Detroit, suffered 192 deaths this week. State officials in Illinois reported 82 additional deaths, many in the Chicago area. Now, with nearly a half million confirmed infections — one-third of the worldwide total — America is the center of the global crisis. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, pointed to revised models showing the estimated deaths dropping to 61,000 deaths from 86,000, but warned "there is still a significant amount of disease." The Senate is set to consider billions in relief for small businesses, but delays are expected.A Trump administration request for quick approval of $250 billion to replenish a new loan program for distressed small businesses is likely to stall in the Senate on Thursday morning, as Democrats press to attach additional funds for hospitals, states and food aid. With Congress in recess and lawmakers scattered around the country, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, plans to try to push through the small business loan funding during a procedural session, a move that would require all senators to agree. But Democrats, who have proposed doubling that request by adding $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for state and local governments, are expected to object and insist on what they are calling their "Small Business Plus" version. Republicans have indicated they will, in turn, move to block the Democratic proposal. They argue that the small business program has a more urgent need for funds, and that additional demands for aid can be addressed in future legislation. The dispute is a prelude to what is likely to be a far more complicated and consequential set of negotiations over another sweeping round of government aid that lawmakers expect to consider in the coming weeks. But the interim package appears to face problems of its own, even beyond the Senate. Without the modifications Democrats are advocating, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California warned on Wednesday that the administration's $250 billion request would not pass the House. This latest round of negotiation comes on the heels of the $2 trillion stimulus law enacted late last month. About 90 percent of hospitalized patients had at least one underlying condition, the C.D.C. finds.On March 1, there were 88 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States. By month's end, there were more than 170,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compiled data on people who were hospitalized from the virus during that month to get a clearer demographic picture of infected patients who have required the most serious medical care. Approximately 90 percent of the 1,482 hospitalized patients included in the study released Wednesday had one or more underlying medical conditions. Older people infected with the virus were more likely to be hospitalized; men were more likely to endure severe cases than women; and black people were hospitalized at a higher rate than whites. The study also found that hospitalization rates for the virus have been significantly higher than for recent outbreaks of influenza. The numbers reflected trends that were reported from other countries at earlier stages of the outbreak. Of the hospitalized patients in the C.D.C. study, 89.3 percent had underlying medical conditions. The most common of those was hypertension, in 49.7 percent of patients, followed by obesity, chronic metabolic disease (like diabetes), chronic lung disease (like asthma) and cardiovascular disease. The data, based on hospitalizations from March 1 to 30, was taken from a network of hospitals in parts of 14 states, including New York, Connecticut, California and Ohio. The area studied includes only about 10 percent of the overall population of the United States, but is seen as a representative snapshot of the virus's spread and the demographic breakdown of patients. The virus came to New York mainly from Europe, not from Asia, studies show.New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not from Asia. "The majority is clearly European," said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review. A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronavirus samples taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March. The research revealed a previously hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs had been put in place. On Jan. 31, President Trump barred foreign nationals from entering the country if they had been in China — the site of the virus's first known outbreak — during the previous two weeks. Viruses invade a cell and take over its molecular machinery, causing it to make new viruses. An international guild of viral historians ferrets out the history of outbreaks by poring over clues embedded in the genetic material of viruses taken from thousands of patients. In January, a team of Chinese and Australian researchers published the first genome of the new virus. Since then, researchers around the world have sequenced over 3,000 more. Some are genetically identical to each other, while others carry distinctive mutations. First crew member from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt is hospitalized because of virus.A sailor stricken with the virus and assigned to the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has been admitted to an intensive care unit at a Navy hospital in Guam, a Defense Department official said, marking the first hospitalization of a crew member since an outbreak began aboard the ship last month. At least 286 members of the crew have tested positive for the virus. "The sailor tested positive for Covid-19 on March 30 and at the time of hospitalization was in a 14-day isolation period on Naval Base Guam," Cmdr. Clayton Doss, a Navy spokesman, said in an email. The outbreak aboard the Roosevelt has been, in many ways, a microcosm of the Defense Department's handling of the virus within its ranks as military officials have weighed military preparedness with the health of its personnel. The ship's commanding officer, Capt. Brett E. Crozier, was relieved after he wrote a strongly worded letter to Navy officials pleading for more help aboard the carrier. The fallout from the episode led to the resignation of Thomas B. Modly, the acting Navy secretary, this week. The virus has killed more people in the Navajo Nation than in the whole of New Mexico.When Chad Yazzie joined the Navajo Police Department just a few months ago, he expected to issue speeding tickets or break up the occasional fistfight. But the coronavirus is now tearing across the Navajo Nation, the largest Indian reservation in the United States. The nation's casualty count has eclipsed that of states with much larger populations, placing the rookie Officer Yazzie on the front lines. "My job is to tell our people to take this virus seriously or face the consequences," Officer Yazzie, 24, said recently as he set up a police roadblock outside the town of Window Rock to enforce the tribal nation's 8 p.m. curfew. Faced with an alarming rise in deaths from what the tribal health department calls Dikos Ntsaaigii-19 — or Covid-19 — Navajo officials have been putting up checkpoints, assembling field hospitals and threatening curfew violators with 30 days in jail or a $1,000 fine. The measures are part of a scramble to protect more than 150,000 people on the vast reservation, which stretches 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and tens of thousands of others who live in towns bordering the Navajo Nation. As of Wednesday night, the virus had killed 20 people on the reservation, compared with 16 in the entire state of New Mexico, which has a population thirteen times larger. Republicans seek to limit voting by mail, despite public health concerns.President Trump and his Republican allies have mounted an aggressive strategy to fight what many of the administration's own health officials view as one of the most effective ways to make voting safer amid the spread of the coronavirus: the expanded use of mail-in ballots. The sight on Tuesday of Wisconsinites in masks and gloves gathering in long lines to vote after Republicans sued to defeat extended, mail-in ballot deadlines, did not deter the president and top officials in his party. Republican leaders said they were pushing ahead to fight state-level statutes that could expand absentee balloting in Arizona, Michigan and elsewhere. In New Mexico, Republicans were battling an effort to go to a mail-in-only primary, and they vowed on Wednesday to fight a move to expand postal balloting in Minnesota. The new political effort seems clearly aimed at helping the president's re-election prospects, as well as bolstering Republicans running further down the ballot. While the president's advisers tend to see the issue in more nuanced terms, Mr. Trump has acknowledged a starker, more partisan view: He has complained that under Democratic plans for national expansion of early voting and voting by mail, "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again." As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a national trend toward voting by mail, experts say elections can be conducted safely that way. And although Republicans claim that corruption would increase, studies have shown that all forms of voting fraud are extremely rare in the United States. At his daily news briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he believed that voting by mail had been abused to hurt Republicans, adding, "I will not stand for it." He did allow, however, that postal ballots could help some older voters — an important part of his base. It was a slight modulation that came at the urging of his advisers. C.D.C. issues new back-to-work guidelines for essential workers.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines on Wednesday detailing how essential employees could go back to work even if they had been exposed to people infected by the coronavirus, provided they did not feel sick and followed certain precautions. Those employees can return if they take their temperature before heading to their workplaces, wear a face mask at all times and practice social distancing while on the job, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director, said at the White House briefing. They should not share headsets or other objects that touch their faces, and they should not congregate in break rooms or crowded areas, he said. Dr. Redfield said that employers should send workers home immediately if they developed any symptoms. He also said that they should increase air exchange in their buildings and clean common surfaces more often. The goal, he said, was to "get these workers back into the critical work force so that we don't have worker shortages." The new guidance appears to blend earlier advice. Last week, the C.D.C. recommended that even healthy Americans wear masks in public after data showed as many as 25 percent of people infected with the virus were asymptomatic, at the urging of the White House, businesses, workers and others to kick-start the idled economy. How to preserve special days in the time of coronavirus.Stay-at-home orders don't have to put a damper on things. Here are some ways to celebrate birthdays, weddings and the coming spring holidays. Alabama agrees to drop lifesaving protocols that were deemed discriminatory.The growing number of coronavirus cases has raised interest in state guidelines outlining who should be prioritized for lifesaving medical treatments in an emergency. But certain standards that Alabama had on the books are discriminatory, the federal health department's Office of Civil Rights said on Wednesday. Alabama's criteria, contained in a 2010 document that set out the state's guidance for rationing ventilators in an emergency, suggested that doctors consider withholding advanced treatment based on patients' intellectual disabilities, with "profound mental retardation" and "moderate to severe dementia" weighing against them. The guidelines also referred to age as a potential category for exclusion, which raised questions of age discrimination, according to the review. The state has agreed to remove all links to the document on its website and not include the contested guidance in its plan for responding to the coronavirus outbreak, the civil rights office said. The quick resolution to a complaint meant that the state would not be subjected to a lengthy investigation that might result in a potential loss of federal funds. What else is happening around the world.
Reporting was contributed by Simon Romero, Peter Baker, Jim Rutenberg, David Waldstein, Emily Cochrane, Maggie Haberman, Nick Corasaniti, Marc Santora, Brooks Barnes, Dan Barry, Conor Dougherty, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Manny Fernandez, Sheri Fink, Michael Levenson and Carl Zimmer.  |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:36 AM PDT Dow surges after Fed announces $2.3 trillion emergency programThe Dow Jones Industrial Average surged by 300 points at the opening bell on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve announced $2.3 trillion in emergency programs to shore up the economy. The Fed said the programs would include the Payroll Protection Program and other measures, and would be geared toward businesses with up to 10,000 employees and $2.5 billion in revenues for 2019. "Our country's highest priority must be to address this public health crisis, providing care for the ill and limiting the further spread of the virus," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a statement. "This Fed is the most aggressive Fed. They do not want to be known as the reason why we went into a depression," Jim Cramer told CNBC Thursday morning. 2nd coronavirus vaccine trial begins in the U.S., with a pinch and a zapU.S. researchers have opened another safety test of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine, this one using a skin-deep shot instead of the usual deeper jab. The pinch should feel like a simple skin test, a researcher told the volunteer lying on an exam table in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday. U.S.-Russian crew blasts off for International Space Station following tight quarantineA U.S.-Russian space crew blasted off Thursday to the International Space Station following a tight quarantine amid the virus outbreak. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian Roscosmos' Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner lifted off as scheduled Thursday afternoon local time from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russian space officials have taken extra precautions to protect the crew during training and pre-flight preparations as the coronavirus outbreak has swept the world. Speaking to journalists Wednesday in a video link from Baikonur, Cassidy said the crew had been in "a very strict quarantine" for the past month and is in good health. "We all feel fantastic," he said. Why some doctors are moving away from ventilators for virus patientsAs health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can. The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients. The evolving treatments highlight the fact that doctors are still learning the best way to manage a virus that emerged only months ago. They are relying on anecdotal, real-time data amid a crush of patients and shortages of basic supplies. Britain's PM Boris Johnson 'continues to improve' in hospital with coronavirusPrime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent his fourth night in a London hospital with coronavirus "continues to improve" and "is in good spirits," a No. 10 spokesperson said on Thursday. Johnson, 55, was taken into St Thomas' Hospital last Sunday night with "persistent" COVID-19 symptoms after previously testing positive for coronavirus. He entered the intensive care unit Monday evening. He remains in St Thomas' Hospital in central London, a jolting reminder that the coronavirus does not discriminate in whom it infects and sickens. Fauci outlines return to normal once outbreak weakens April 9, 202001:27 Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that he thinks the U.S. may be experiencing the "beginning" of the flattening of the curve with the coronavirus outbreak, but added that the virus will determine when life returns to normal. In an interview on NBC's "TODAY" show, co-host Savannah Guthrie asked Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, whether people will be able to be out and about again by summer. "I hope that's the case, Savannah," Fauci said, but he added that the virus "determines the timetable." President Donald Trump has been itching to reopen the economy, saying Wednesday that it should happen "sooner rather than later." Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he's "cautiously optimistic" that the U.S. may soon start to see a "turnaround and that curve not only flatten, but coming down." He made clear, however, that when the U.S. attempts to return to normal, the virus won't suddenly disappear. Read the full story here. Mass Ramadan events in Iran may stop over virusIran's supreme leader suggested Thursday that mass gatherings may be barred through the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan amid the pandemic. This comes as Amnesty International said it believed at least 35 Iranian prisoners were killed by security forces amid rioting over the virus. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comment in a televised address as Iran prepares to restart its economic activity while suffering one of the world's worst outbreaks. He is also the highest-ranking official in the Muslim world to acknowledge the holy month of prayer and reflection will be disrupted by the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Ramadan — when Muslims fast from dawn until sunset — is set to begin in late April and last through most of May. Iranian mosques, however, have been closed and Friday prayers canceled across the country for fear of the virus spreading among those attending. Iran is reporting more than 60,000 cases as of Thursday, the highest in the Middle East by far. Global Update: Poverty shockwaves, police raid a cruise ship in Australia and Gaza runs out of test kitsAnother 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last weekAnother 6.6 million American workers filed first-time unemployment claims for the week ending April 4, bringing the cumulative total to an astonishing 16 million over the past three weeks. For the week ending March 21, 3.3 million people filed new unemployment claims, easily shattering the previous record set in 1982 of 695,000. Last week, that astounding figure doubled, as 6.6 million people filed claims for the week ending March 28 — a figure that was revised upward to 6.9 million in the new release. "So far, jobless claims look to me like the only limitation on the number of applications has been the states' ability to process those claims," said Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer of Wells Fargo Wealth and Investment Management. The cumulative toll of the last three weeks comes as last week's Labor Department release showed that the economy shed 701,000 jobs in March — a figure far more negative than anticipated, although economists said it only captured a fraction of the carnage in the labor market that largely took place in the second half of the month.  April 8, 202001:32 Indonesia reports biggest daily jump in coronavirus deathsIndonesia reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus deaths on Thursday, bringing the total confirmed number to 280 in the world's fourth most populous country, the highest death toll in Asia outside China, where the virus first emerged. Indonesian health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said the country had registered 337 new infections, also a new daily high, taking the total to 3,293. Indonesia has brought in "large-scale social restrictions," but President Joko Widodo has resisted bringing in the type of tough lockdowns imposed by neighbors. Widodo has moved to allow areas like Jakarta, where there has been a spike in cases, more powers to tackle the crisis.  |
| Studies Show N.Y. Outbreak Originated in Europe - The New York Times Posted: 09 Apr 2020 03:27 AM PDT  Here's what you need to know:Image  Coronavirus in New York came mainly from Europe, studies show.New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia. "The majority is clearly European," said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review. A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March. The research revealed a previously hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs had been put in place. On Jan. 31, President Trump barred foreign nationals from entering the country if they had been in China — the site of the virus's first known outbreak — during the previous two weeks. Viruses invade a cell and take over its molecular machinery, causing it to make new viruses. An international guild of viral historians ferrets out the history of outbreaks by poring over clues embedded in the genetic material of viruses taken from thousands of patients. In January, a team of Chinese and Australian researchers published the first genome of the new virus. Since then, researchers around the world have sequenced over 3,000 more. Some are genetically identical to each other, while others carry distinctive mutations. C.D.C. issues new back-to-work guidelines for essential workers.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines on Wednesday detailing how essential employees can go back to work even if they have been exposed to people infected by the coronavirus, provided they do not feel sick and follow certain precautions. Those employees can return if they take their temperature before heading to their workplaces, wear a face mask at all times and practice social distancing while on the job, Dr. Robert Redfield, the C.D.C. director, said at the White House briefing. They should not share headsets or other objects that touch their faces, and they should not congregate in break rooms or crowded areas, he said. Dr. Redfield said that employers should send workers home immediately if they developed any symptoms. He also said they should increase air exchange in their buildings and clean common surfaces more often. The goal, he said, was to "get these workers back into the critical work force so that we don't have worker shortages." The new guidance appears to blend earlier advice. Last week, the C.D.C. recommended that even healthy Americans wear masks in public after data showed as many as 25 percent of people infected with the virus were asymptomatic, at the urging of the White House, businesses, workers and others to kick-start the idled economy. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, and other government experts suggested at the briefing that the strict measures being taken by Americans to stem the spread of the virus may be leveling new cases in areas like New York, Detroit, Chicago and Boston. In New York, 'the bad news is actually terrible.'New York, the hardest hit state in America, reported its highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in a single day on Wednesday, announcing that another 779 people had died. That brought the virus death toll to 6,268 in New York State, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo noted was more than twice as many people as the state had lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "I went through 9/11," he said at his daily briefing. "I thought in my lifetime I wouldn't have to see anything like that again — nothing that bad, nothing that tragic." The number of hospitalizations had fallen in recent days, he said, suggesting that social distancing measures were working to flatten the steep curve of the virus's spread, at least for now. The rates depend not only on the number of new arrivals but also on hospital admission standards. "If we stop what we are doing, you will see that curve change," Mr. Cuomo warned. Then he pivoted to a more somber tone. "The bad news isn't just bad," he said. "The bad news is actually terrible." New Jersey also had a record number of deaths in the past day: Gov. Philip D. Murphy said that 275 people had died there, up from 232 on Tuesday. More people have died in New York and New Jersey — a total of 7,772 — than in the rest of the United States combined. Mr. Cuomo said that the staggering death toll could continue to rise even as hospitalization rates were falling, because it reflected people who had been on ventilators for long periods of time. He expressed reluctance to offer a timeline on when social gatherings could begin again, when he was asked about New York's theater industry, which will remain shuttered until at least June. "I wouldn't use what Broadway thinks as a barometer of anything," he said. New York State now has more confirmed cases than any single country in the world outside of the United States. The virus might not fade in warm weather, scientists warn.The homebound and virus-wary across the Northern Hemisphere, be it Mr. Trump or cooped-up schoolchildren, have clung to the possibility that the pandemic will fade in hot weather, as some viral diseases do. But the National Academy of Sciences, in a public report sent to the White House, has said, in effect: Don't get your hopes up. After reviewing a variety of research reports, the panel concluded that the number of studies, of varying quality of evidence, simply do not offer a clear forecast of what will happen to the spread of the coronavirus in the summer. The report cited a small number of well-controlled laboratory studies that show that high temperature and humidity can diminish the ability of the virus to survive in the environment. But the report noted the studies had limitations that made them less than conclusive. "Given that countries currently in 'summer' climates, such as Australia and Iran, are experiencing rapid virus spread, a decrease in cases with increases in humidity and temperature elsewhere should not be assumed," the report stated. Homes for disabled people experience a surge in coronavirus cases.As the coronavirus preys on the most vulnerable, it is taking root in New York's sprawling network of group homes for people with special needs. As of Monday, 1,100 developmentally disabled residents in New York State have tested positive for coronavirus, and 105 have died, state officials said, a death rate far higher than in the general population. Separately, a study by a large consortium of private service providers found that residents of group homes and similar facilities in New York City and surrounding areas were 5.34 times more likely than the general population to develop Covid-19 and 4.86 times more likely to die from it. A caregiver on Staten Island, who said about 50 colleagues had tested positive, described the challenges faced by those remaining on the job. "One of the individuals here is positive, and his behavior is to get up, to pace, and he wants to give me a hug, shake my hand," the caregiver said, asking that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak. "They have a hard time realizing that they need to be isolated, and the psychologists aren't coming out and talking to him," he added. "We don't have training for this. We're just learning on the fly." Alabama treatment guidelines are ruled discriminatory.The growing number of coronavirus cases has raised interest in state guidelines outlining who should be prioritized for lifesaving medical treatments in an emergency. But certain standards that Alabama had on the books are discriminatory, the federal health department's Office of Civil Rights said on Wednesday. Alabama's criteria, contained in a 2010 document that set out the state's guidance for rationing ventilators in an emergency, suggested that doctors consider withholding advanced treatment based on patients' intellectual disabilities, with "profound mental retardation" and "moderate to severe dementia" weighing against them. The guidelines also referred to age as a potential category for exclusion, which raised questions of age discrimination, according to the review. The state has agreed to remove all links to the document on its website and not include the contested guidance in its plan for responding to the coronavirus outbreak, the civil rights office said. The quick resolution to a complaint meant that the state would not be subject to a lengthy investigation that might result in a potential loss of federal funds. "It sends a message to other states that they need to review their crisis standards-of-care policies to make sure that they are fully compliant," Roger Severino, the civil rights office's director, said in a statement. Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama's state health officer, said in a statement: "All people deserve compassion and equal respect, and with this in mind, the allocation of care cannot discriminate based on race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, exercise of conscience or religion." Days before Easter, Kansas legislators overturn an order limiting religious services.Republican legislators in Kansas on Wednesday rescinded an order intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus by limiting the size of church services, even as the number of cases in that state continued to rise. The senate president, Susan Wagle, a Republican, said most people were aware that the virus was highly contagious and wanted to limit its spread, "but don't tell us we can't practice our religious freedoms," according to The Wichita Eagle. The move, days before Easter, came after Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, signed an executive order banning gatherings of 10 or more people at religious institutions. She warned that Kansas was approaching its projected peak infection rate in the coming weeks and "the risk for a spike in Covid-19 cases through church gatherings is especially dangerous." Ms. Kelly said on Wednesday that Kansas had 1,046 cases of the coronavirus and 38 deaths. At a news conference, she denounced lawmakers for reversing the order, calling it a "shockingly irresponsible decision that will put every Kansan's life at risk." White House's $250 billion request is inadequate, Pelosi says.Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on Wednesday the White House's request for a quick, $250 billion infusion for loans to small businesses would not pass the House without additional funds for hospitals and states, and other changes demanded by Democrats. "The bill that they put forth will not get unanimous support in the House — it just won't," she said in an interview on NPR, pointing to, among other Democratic requests, a proposal to reserve half of the loan program for businesses owned by farmers, women, people of color and veterans. "Why wouldn't you give them an avenue to participate?" she asked. On Wednesday evening Mr. Trump called on Congress to approve more money for the loan program "this week, as soon as possible." "I think we have a pretty good understanding with the Democrats, hopefully it's going to be bipartisan," he said. "We do not have time for the partisan games, we don't want that, the obstruction, or totally unrelated agendas." In a joint statement earlier, Ms. Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said they wanted to add $100 billion for hospitals, community health centers and health systems — in part to shore up testing and the distribution of critical safety gear for health workers on the front lines — as well as $150 billion for state and local governments and a 15 percent increase in food assistance benefits. It was unclear whether Republicans would agree to the additions, although some lawmakers warned against doing anything that could delay an infusion of cash that both parties agree is badly needed for small businesses. A jail in Chicago is now the largest-known source of U.S. infections.The outbreak appears to confirm the concerns of many health officials, who warned that America's overcrowded and unsanitary jails and prisons could be a major source of spread. Those warnings prompted the authorities across the country to release thousands of inmates to try to slow the infection, save lives and preserve medical resources. Video transcript transcript How Coronavirus at Rikers Puts All of N.Y.C. at RiskOfficials have promised a mass release of inmates from city jails to slow the spread of coronavirus. Critics say the government isn't moving fast enough.
 Still, hundreds of diagnoses have been confirmed at local, state and federal correctional facilities — almost certainly an undercount, given a lack of testing and rapid spread — leading to hunger strikes in immigrant detention centers and demands for more protection from prison employee unions. In Cook County, officials released hundreds of inmates early — all of whom had been convicted of nonviolent crimes like drug possession and disorderly conduct. Judges are continuing to examine the cases of each inmate to determine if bonds can be lowered for certain people. That would allow dozens, perhaps hundreds, more people to be released, officials say. In New York City, jails like Rikers Island are also seeing infection rates grow exponentially. City and state officials have promised the mass release of inmates. But many say they are not moving quickly enough, putting inmates, staff and the city at risk. Seismographs reveal that stay-at-home orders have quieted the planet.Seismometers may be built to detect earthquakes, but their mechanical ears hear much more. Even the everyday hum of humanity — people moving about on cars, trains and planes — has a seismically detectable heartbeat. But as billions of people have been instructed to stay home to try to curtail the pandemic's spread, the roar of urban life has turned into a whisper all over the world. Today, in cities large and small, the thumping pulse of civilization is now barely detectable on many seismograms. "It did make the scale of the shutdowns a bit more real to me," said Celeste Labedz, a graduate student in geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. In person, you can see only your neighborhood's dedication to remaining home. With seismometers, Ms. Labedz said, you can see the collective willingness of millions of the world's urban dwellers to hunker down. London is no longer buzzing. Paula Koelemeijer, a seismologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the seismometer in her suburban house was clocking a 20 to 25 percent reduction in average weekly noise, compared with the week before Britain began its lockdown. Noise levels on some seismic stations in Los Angeles have dropped to below half of what they normally are, Ms. Labedz said. Claudio Satriano, a seismologist at the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, detected a 38 percent drop in the average daytime noise in his city. Scientists are now able to better hear the planet's natural tectonic soundtrack. With the volume of humanity reduced, "we can detect smaller earthquakes, just like how it's easier to hear a phone ring in a library than at a rock concert," Ms. Labedz said. California will spend $1.4 billion on personal protective equipment.Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Wednesday that the state would spend $1.4 billion on personal protective equipment for medical personnel, supermarket workers, employees of the Department of Motor Vehicles and any other "front-line employees walking the streets." One day after announcing that the state had reached agreements to buy 200 million masks a month from factories in Asia, Mr. Newsom and other officials described a broad effort that includes the purchase of gowns, face masks and other equipment. "We made a big, bold bet on a new strategy, and it is bearing fruit," Mr. Newsom said. As part of the plan, the state is contracting with a company to sterilize 80,000 N95 masks daily. The masks can be used about 20 times before being discarded. Mr. Newsom also announced one of the state's highest death tolls: 68 people died over the past 24 hours, bringing California's total deaths to about 450. Amid nationwide concern about the disproportionate number of nonwhite people who have died from the virus, Mr. Newsom said preliminary data did not show that trend in California. He said Latinos made up 30 percent of the state's cases and 29 percent of the deaths; Asians made up 14 percent of cases and 16 percent of deaths; and black residents made up 6 percent of cases and 3 percent of the deaths. But he offered the caveat that the state has ethnicity data for only about one-third of cases. The S&P 500 is up 23 percent from its March low.Wall Street resumed its rally on Wednesday. With a more than 3 percent gain, the S&P 500 is now up about 23 percent from its March 23 low. The market has been steadily climbing since it hit that bottom, a rebound that began after the Federal Reserve and lawmakers in Washington took unprecedented steps to protect the world's largest economy from a collapse amid the pandemic. Stocks are still down about 19 percent from their late February high. To some extent, the recent gains reflect Wall Street's fear of missing out on the rebound that many analysts predicted would eventually come. "If you wait until the coast is clear you will have missed a huge part of the gains," said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak a trading and asset management firm. "And professional investors can't afford to do that." For now, though, it is big money managers — not mom-and-pop retail investors — who are in on the action. Hedge fund traders and mutual fund managers have swooped into the market, driving sharp gains for blue-chip shares that have been battered by the market sell-off. Still, the market's recent optimism is set against a grim backdrop of economic and human catastrophe that continues to play out — and which threatens to undercut any rally at a moment's notice. A new report on weekly jobless claims on Thursday is certain to show millions more Americans are out of work. The two prior reports recorded more than 10 million claims for unemployment in late March. Here are answers to common questions about the malaria drug Trump keeps pushing.There is no proof that any drug can cure or prevent infection with the coronavirus. But in the face of an exploding pandemic with a frightening death toll, people are desperate for a bit of hope. The drug that has received the most attention is hydroxychloroquine, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly recommended, despite warnings from his own health officials that there is little data to support its widespread use as a treatment against the virus. With so many mixed messages, here are answers to common questions about the drug, including what it is, how it is being used, what studies show and what its potential side effects are. Passover will be different this year.For generations Jewish families have gathered for the first night of Passover to recount the 10 plagues from the Book of Exodus — frogs, pestilence, death — and to remember how God delivered the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt thousands of years ago. Jews observed the Seder in the fifth century B.C. on the Egyptian island of Elephantine, and they observed it in 1943 as German troops liquidated the Warsaw ghetto. And on Wednesday in homes across the United States, families will once again light candles at the Seder table and ask why this night is different from all other nights. Of course, with a literal plague in their midst, families cannot meet in person this year and may even tweak their Haggadahs — the text that is annually read aloud — to reflect the moment. But the power of Passover remains, perhaps even more so as a symbol of perseverance. The Times asked families around the country to share reflections on the Passover story in this moment. Their words speak to the power of memory, the meaning of plague, and how crockpots and cookbooks can connect us with loved ones of generations past and future. Food banks are being squeezed by rising hunger and dwindling resources.Demand for food assistance in the United States is rising at an unprecedented rate, as millions of Americans find themselves out of work and school closures mean that many families who counted on them for free or subsidized meals need to turn elsewhere. The surge in need is coming just as food banks face shortages of both donated food and volunteer workers. It's a nationwide phenomenon:
"I've never seen anything like it," said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research organization in Washington, D.C. She has studied food security for more than a quarter century. "People love the phrase 'the perfect storm,'" she added, "but nothing is built for this." Union for food workers asks for 'mandatory' guidance to protect its members.The nation's largest union representing grocery store and pharmacy workers asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday to issue "immediate and mandatory guidance" to protect the workers, and others at food processing and meatpacking facilities. In a letter to Dr. Robert Redfield, the C.D.C. director, the international president of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union asked that the agency require stores to, among other things, limit the number of consumers who enter at any given time, allow employees to wash their hands at least once every 30 minutes and ensure that employees wear masks and gloves while on the job. The union president, Anthony Perrone, also asked for the C.D.C.'s help improving safety conditions at food processing facilities — for example, by requiring them to provide protective gear to their workers. "Given the direct health threat faced by these food workers," Mr. Perrone said in the letter, "we believe it is absolutely critical that the C.D.C. take action before this growing crisis threatens our nation's food supply." The food and commercial workers' union represents over 900,000 members employed at grocery stores, pharmacies, and food processing and meatpacking plants. Several big supermarket chains have reported deaths of employees from Covid-19; they include workers at a Trader Joe's in New York, a Giant in Maryland and a Walmart outside Chicago. The C.D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter, and it was unclear if the agency could require such actions. Its guidance is generally not mandatory. Some college students don't want to pay in-person tuition for online classes.Students at the University of Chicago are organizing a tuition strike, threatening to withhold their payments for the spring quarter if the school doesn't give them a hefty discount. That cry is being heard on other campuses as well, as students complain that online classes don't measure up to the real thing and say they shouldn't have to pay the full load for a subpar experience, especially at a time when more are facing financial uncertainties. While a number of colleges are offering refunds of room and board charges, students in a number of schools are asking them to lower tuition as well. At the New School in New York City, students have called for a boycott of online classes this week if the school didn't refund part of their spring tuition. Students at Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts have all started online petitions calling for partial refunds. In Chicago, an ad hoc group of undergraduate and graduate students is calling for the institution to cut tuition by half and eliminate fees for as long as the pandemic continues. The group has collected more than 1,400 signatures on a petition. "Students are extremely vulnerable," Julia Attie, a senior who is one of the organizers, said in an email. "Many are experiencing severe financial and housing insecurity." Undergraduate tuition for the spring term, which began this week, is more than $19,000 and is due on April 29. The total annual cost of attendance at the University of Chicago, including tuition, housing and other costs, is more than $80,000, one of the highest in the country. The university guarantees free tuition for families with incomes under $125,000. The university said that it was already being forced to take austerity measures because of the crisis. In an email to faculty and staff on Tuesday, Robert Zimmer, the university's president, said it was pivoting from focusing on health issues raised by the virus to looking at financial issues. Mr. Zimmer said that the university expected a weakened endowment, reduced alumni donations and a higher demand for financial aid, all of which would take a toll. Mr. Zimmer predicted that the financial effect of the pandemic was "likely to be as great as or even greater than in the financial crisis of 2008-09." W.H.O. leader warns that politicizing the pandemic is 'playing with fire.'Video transcript transcript 'Please Don't Politicize This Virus,' W.H.O. Head Tells World LeadersThe World Health Organization's director general rebuked officials around the world, following President Trump's comments attacking the W.H.O. and China.
 Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, made an impassioned plea on Wednesday for global solidarity, warning that politicizing the pandemic was "playing with fire" and that disunity and finger-pointing would result in "many more body bags." Dr. Tedros's comments came a day after Mr. Trump falsely claimed that the W.H.O. had "missed the call" on the rising threat in China and threatened to withhold American funding for the organization, which exceeds $400 million annually. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on that threat, saying at a news briefing on Wednesday that the United States was re-evaluating its funding to the organization. "When there are cracks at the national level and global level, that's when the virus succeeds," Dr. Tedros said, though he did not cite Mr. Trump by name. "Please quarantine politicizing Covid. That's the way if we want to win." He added: "We shouldn't waste time pointing fingers. We need to unite." While some critics have called on Dr. Tedros to resign, he said he was not deterred. "We will do everything we can to serve humanity," Dr. Tedros said. "We're not angels. We are human beings. So we make mistakes, like other human beings." The virus has found a foothold in rural America.The virus has officially reached more than two-thirds of the country's rural counties, with one in 10 reporting at least one death. Doctors and elected officials are warning that a late-arriving wave of illness could overwhelm rural communities that are older, poorer and sicker than much of the country, and already dangerously short on medical help. "Everybody never really thought it would get to us," said Grace Rhodes, 18, who is from Southern Illinois and is studying to become a nurse. "A lot of people are in denial." But many rural doctors, leaders and health experts worry that they will have fewer hospital beds, ventilators and nurses to handle any onslaught. Virus illnesses and deaths are still overwhelmingly concentrated in cities and suburbs, and new rural cases have not exploded at the same rate as in some cities. But they are growing fast. This week, the case rate in rural areas was more than double what it was six days earlier. Under fire for trades during the pandemic, senator says she will divest from individual stocks.Seeking to move past allegations that she has tried to profit from the crisis, Senator Kelly Loeffler, Republican of Georgia, announced on Wednesday that she and her husband would divest from all individual stocks and move the money into mutual and exchange-traded funds. Ms. Loeffler, a new senator, has faced weeks of attacks from her political rivals in both parties and scrutiny from the news media about stock trades worth millions of dollars made earlier this year in her name, before the pandemic roiled the financial markets. Ms. Loeffler's critics questioned whether she and a handful of other lawmakers had used nonpublic information they had received from their jobs. Ms. Loeffler continued on Wednesday to adamantly deny that, insisting that she had done nothing wrong, legally or ethically. The stock trades were all made by outside financial advisers who independently manage her investments, she said. "I left the private sector to serve the people of Georgia, not make a profit," Ms. Loeffler said. Federal and local officials are concerned about cases in the D.C. region.As cases keep rising in and around the nation's capital, stories of residents not complying with social distancing guidelines have been prevalent. On ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday, Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House Task Force, said federal officials were "concerned about the metro area of Washington and Baltimore." As of Tuesday, there were 1,440 cases in Washington, and 27 deaths. The district's latest data shows that nearly 60 percent of the dead were African-American people, though they make up about 46 percent of its population. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said that she was worried about the disproportionate impact the virus is having on black people — a concern that has also emerged in other places across the country. The district's stay-at-home order went into effect on April 1, nearly a month after its first case was confirmed, on March 7. Like other orders, it makes exceptions for grocery shopping, medical appointments, and "allowable recreational activities," like walking and riding bikes. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting delegate for the district, wrote to the acting director of the National Park Service on Tuesday requesting the closure of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials amid reports that they had been attracting crowds, making it hard to maintain social distancing. "Closure would protect the public and NPS employees, including U.S. Park Police officers," Ms. Norton's letter said. "Federal agencies need to lead by example and do everything possible to flatten the curve." General Motors will send 30,000 ventilators to the federal stockpile.After weeks of drama that included Mr. Trump's unproven accusation that General Motors was trying to "rip off" the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday that the carmaker would provide 30,000 ventilators to the nation's stockpile for $489 million by the end of August. The first batch — 6,132 of the machines — will be delivered by June 1, after most of the peak demand is expected to have passed from the first wave of cases at hospitals. But even that initial number amounts to roughly two-thirds of what is now believed to be left in the stockpile after thousands of ventilators were sent to New York and other hard-hit cities. In an early-morning statement, the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, said the contract would be among the first during the crisis issued under the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that essentially allows the United States to assure that it is the first customer in line — and that it can control the price it is being charged. The formal contract comes two weeks after the White House pulled back from announcing what was intended to be a $1 billion contract for upward of 80,000 ventilators. Mr. Trump had accused the company of "wasting time," and he also attacked Mary T. Barra, the company's chief executive, with whom he had clashed last year over the closure of a G.M. facility. But Mr. Trump was essentially ordering the company to do what it had already announced it was doing, even in the absence of a contract. Here's what you need to know about relief for small business.The federal stimulus bills enacted in March, including a $2 trillion economic relief plan, offer help for the millions of American small businesses affected by the pandemic. Cash grants. Low-interest loans. Payments to offset some payroll costs for businesses that keep or rehire workers. There are also enhancements to unemployment insurance and paid leave. How delays and unheeded warnings hindered New York's fight against the virus.New York City and the surrounding suburbs have become the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, with far more cases than many countries have. More than 138,000 people in the state have tested positive for the virus, with nearly all of them in the city and nearby suburbs. On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that 731 more people had died of the virus, the state's highest one-day total. The overall death toll in the state is 5,489. Epidemiologists have pointed to New York City's density and its role as an international hub of commerce and tourism to explain why the coronavirus has spread so rapidly there. And it seems unlikely that any response by the state or city could have fully stopped the pandemic. Desperation outweighs health concerns as people crowd Florida unemployment lines.The aerial videos recorded by WPLG, a local television station, show people clamoring for unemployment forms near a local library. Some applicants wore masks and gloves, but others went without protective gear. As tensions rose among those in line, some shouted and others pushed in front of one another to get to a police officer who was handing out forms. "We don't want to turn this into a riot, into a shoving match," Carl Zogby, a member of the Hialeah City Council, told WPLG. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for weeks resisted stringent social distancing measures, but ultimately ordered most of the state's more than 21 million residents to stay at home beginning last week. He has faced mounting criticism over the difficulty Floridians have had filing for unemployment benefits. Miami-Dade County officials said paper unemployment benefit applications would be available at 26 libraries beginning on Wednesday. In a statement, the county said the library system would be encouraging people to stand six feet apart with "informational signage and markings on the ground." Reporting was contributed by Reed Abelson, Peter Baker, Alan Blinder, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Audra D. S. Burch, Weiyi Cai, Emily Cochrane, Michael Cooper, Stacy Cowley, Elizabeth Dias, Caitlin Dickerson, Conor Dougherty, Julia Echikson, John Eligon, Nicholas Fandos, Lisa Friedman, Thomas Fuller, Robert Gebeloff, J. David Goodman, Abby Goodnough, William Grimes, Danny Hakim, Anemona Hartocollis, Adeel Hassan, Jack Healy, Danielle Ivory, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Nicholas Kulish, Michael Levenson, Dan Levin, Patricia Mazzei, Colin Moynihan, Andy Newman, Jack Nicas, Richard A. Oppel Jr., David E. Sanger, Marc Santora, Charlie Savage, Dionne Searcey, Matt Stevens, Eileen Sullivan, Vanessa Swales, Sabrina Tavernise, Timothy Williams and Carl Zimmer.  |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2020 06:31 AM PDT  Police in Australia have seized the "black box" from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, days after launching a criminal investigation into the vessel that has been linked to hundreds of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country. The ship, operated by Carnival Australia, docked in Sydney last month. Thousands of passengers disembarked and cases linked to the ship quickly spread, making the ship the largest known source of infections in Australia. At least 15 passengers from the cruise have since died. Earlier this week, police in New South Wales announced they would probe how the ship allowed passengers to reenter the general population. "Ships have a black box very similar to that of international planes, and that and other evidence has been seized for further investigation," New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said Thursday, according to the BBC. In an emailed statement, Princess Cruises, the cruise line owned by Carnival Corp., said that the device Australian police seized is called a voyage data recorder and that its "sole purpose is recording navigational information and radio transmissions to and from a port's control center for use in marine accident investigations." "It has no bearing on the health clearance process that Ruby Princess followed to the letter," the statement said. "Any suggestion that VDR material is relevant to the police investigation is questionable because it has nothing to do with granting health clearance." More than 1,000 members of the crew are still on board the ship, and hundreds have fallen ill. More than a dozen have tested positive for the coronavirus so far. After the probe was announced earlier this week, Carnival Australia said in a statement that "in addition to willingly participating in the investigation, [it] will vigorously respond to any allegations of which there must now be full disclosure and the basis for them." On Thursday, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said officials had confirmed 96 new cases of the virus, the lowest daily increase in several weeks.  |
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