Live updates: As U.S. death toll soars, Trump accuses WHO of coronavirus coverup and suspends funding; global infections near 2 million

As the number of confirmed infections worldwide approaches 2 million, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned that this is “not the time to reduce the resources … in the fight against the virus.” Philanthropist Bill Gates said halting funding amid a pandemic “is as dangerous as it sounds.”

Here are some significant developments:

U.S. retail sales plunged 8.7 percent in March â€" the largest monthly decline ever â€" as the coronavirus forced Americans to stay at home. 

South Koreans headed to the polls for parliamentary elections Wednesday after the government rejected calls to postpone the vote amid concerns about virus transmission.

Clinicians around the world are seeing evidence that the coronavirus isn’t just destroying lungs; it may be causing heart inflammation, acute kidney disease, neurological malfunction, blood clots, intestinal damage and liver problems, as well.

The Treasury Department ordered Trump’s name to be printed on $1,200 stimulus checks that are being sent to 70 million Americans, a move that some Internal Revenue Service officials have said could delay delivery by several days.

Amid growing uneasiness about stay-at-home orders, conservative groups across the U.S. are organizing “anti-quarantine” rallies, including one Wednesday in Lansing, the capital of virus-ravaged Michigan.

The Guatemalan Health Ministry reported that between 50 percent and 70 percent of deportees from the United States have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a startling statistic that other government officials have yet to confirm.

April 15, 2020 at 10:21 AM EDT

Cases of coronavirus infections double in Saudi Arabia over one week; Mecca remains a hot spot

JERUSALEM â€" The number of coronavirus infections in Saudi Arabia has doubled in the past week, climbing to a total of 5,862 after posting almost 500 new cases in the previous 24 hours, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Six people died of complications of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, in the same period, bringing the death toll to 79.

The holy city of Mecca, a city of 2 million where Saudi authorities have sharply restricted access to sacred sites, is one of the country’s main hot spots with more than 1,000 cases, second only to the capital Riyadh. Fears are rising over the virus’s spread through cramped slums and labor camps, according to media reports, in spite of a curfew imposed earlier this week limiting almost all outdoor activity.

The well-being of Mecca is considered of vital importance to the Saudi royal family, who are considered guardians of Islam’s holiest site, a destination for millions of pilgrims a year.

By Steve Hendrix

April 15, 2020 at 10:14 AM EDT

U.S. stocks plunge amid steep fall in bank earnings, retail sales

U.S. stocks tumbled Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average opening down more than 500 points on a new wave of dismal economic data.

Investors cringed after Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs said first-quarter profits tumbled at least 45 percent. Retail sales posted a record decline in March since consumer spending nose-dived as states instituted stay-at-home orders designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

By Rachel Siegel

April 15, 2020 at 9:41 AM EDT

Kellyanne Conway falsely suggests origins of covid-19’s name as she defends decision to suspend WHO funding

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway falsely suggested Wednesday that there had been 18 previous strains of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus as she defended President Trump’s decision to suspend funding to the World Health Organization.

"This is covid-19, not covid-1, folks, and so you would think the people charged with the World Health Organization facts and figures would be on top of that,” Conway said during an interview on Fox News.

In fact, the “19” at the end of the disease’s name denotes that it was discovered in 2019, not that it is the 19th strain of the virus. At its outset, it was referred to by health officials as the “2019 novel coronavirus.”

Trump announced Tuesday that he will suspend payments to the WHO in response to the United Nations agency’s handling of the pandemic, drawing widespread criticism from health experts and others, given that the organization is in the midst of combating a global outbreak that has killed thousands and crippled world economies.

During her Fox appearance, Conway characterized the decision as “just a pause.”

“This is just a pause right now so there’s an investigation, examination into what happened, but people should know the facts,” she said.

By John Wagner

April 15, 2020 at 9:25 AM EDT

Cutting WHO funding a ‘dangerous step,’ physicians’ group says

President Trump’s decision to cut new funding to the World Health Organization during the coronavirus pandemic “is a dangerous step in the wrong direction,” the head of the American Medical Association said Wednesday.

The virus “knows no boundaries,” Patrice Harris said on CNN, and the United Nations agency’s work to share technical assistance and information with less-resourced countries can have positive second- and third-order effects in the United States.

“It certainly requires global cooperation. Infections in other parts in the world can certainly impact us here in the United States,” she said. “It has. And that ultimately means more infections and tragically more deaths.”

By Alex Horton

April 15, 2020 at 9:04 AM EDT

Spain reports reduced spread a month after declaring state of alarm

The head of Spain’s Emergency Health Response, Fernando Simon, credited social distancing, personal hygiene and the World Health Organization’s declaration of a pandemic as keys to how his country has dramatically reduced the spread of the novel coronavirus as he announced a daily death toll of 523, bringing the total to 18,579.

One month after Spain declared a state of alarm, Simon said the reproduction of the virus has dropped from three people per infected case in the beginning of March to less than one throughout Spain on Wednesday.

Simon said the World Health Organization’s decision to “call it pandemic” and the consequent state of alarm led to the reduction.

“We modified our behavior, and that affected the reproduction,” Simon said. “After the state of alarm, we [saw] an acute reduction with a progressive decline.”

The comments came as the number of confirmed cases rose by 5,092 to 177,633, compared with the 3,045 new cases reported Tuesday. Simon attributed the large jump in numbers to increased testing due to the government’s distribution of millions of fast tests, one region’s newly included asymptomatic cases and delayed reporting following the weekend decline.

“For the next three days, it will be difficult to interpret the data until it is filtered,” Simon said, indicating that it was encouraging that hospitalized cases around the country were growing by only 1.6 percent daily.

Spain remains on nationwide lockdown, although the government said construction, factory and office workers could return to work this week. Commuter trains in Madrid and Barcelona reported 13 percent of their regular traffic.

By Pamela Rolfe

April 15, 2020 at 9:03 AM EDT

Retail sales post record decline in March as coronavirus guts consumer spending

U.S. retail sales plunged 8.7 percent in March â€" their largest monthly decline ever â€" as the novel coronavirus forced Americans to stay at home, gutting consumer spending.

The figure stands in stark contrast to February’s 0.5 percent decline and offers another lens into the pandemic’s economic devastation. Consumers drive about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, but stay-at-home orders have hollowed out spending at restaurants, malls and the like.

By Rachel Siegel

April 15, 2020 at 8:57 AM EDT

De Blasio, Fauci don’t expect baseball to return for months

President Trump may be “tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old,” as he said Tuesday, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and coronavirus task force member Anthony S. Fauci don’t see the season starting any time soon.

“I think it’s going to be awhile. I think we all are missing sports. Everyone who is a fan is missing it deeply,” de Blasio told CNN. “But . . . if we move too quickly, if we put 50,000 people in Yankee Stadium and that’s part of why you see a resurgence of the disease, that would be the worst of all worlds. So I think that’s one of the things later in the trajectory. We have to first prove we can contain this disease.”

Trump made his remarks during his Tuesday news conference and named sports executives to a panel that will discuss restarting the economy. Among them are pro sports commissioners Adam Silver, Rob Manfred and Roger Goodell and owners Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban.

Competition across sports began to cease March 11, when Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Now, at least one sport is considering a June return. The PGA, according to Golf Digest, plans to hold the Charles Schwab Challenge June 11-14 in Fort Worth, probably with no fans present.

“People say, ‘Well, you can’t play without spectators.’ Well, I think you’d probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game,” he said.

The key, he said, is testing.

“Keep them very well surveilled. . . . Have them tested, like every week. By a gazillion tests,” Fauci said. “And make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family. And just let them play the season out. I mean, that’s a really artificial way to do it, but when you think about it, it might be better than nothing.”

By Cindy Boren

April 15, 2020 at 8:53 AM EDT

WHO has been ‘a great partner for us,’ CDC chief says after Trump cuts funding

Hours after President Trump announced that he would withhold funding from the World Health Organization over its response to the coronavirus pandemic, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the United Nations agency is “a great partner” of his organization.

“Those decisions that are going to be made above, related to some of the geopolitical issues, I have to leave to those that really have that expertise,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said on CBS News. “But for me, and for CDC and the public-health arena, we’re continuing to work side by side with WHO to the best that we can to limit the spread of disease and to protect the American people.”

On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” host George Stephanopoulos asked Redfield to respond to Trump’s assertion that the WHO had failed in its response to the pandemic and collaborated with China to spread misinformation. Redfield declined to address the claim directly.

“I'd like to do the post-mortem on this outbreak once we get through it together,” he said.

Redfield also said the science is not yet solid on the impact of coronavirus antibodies on a person’s ability to get sick and that this will probably not be known for sure until the virus’s likely return next year.

“Our working assumption is that individuals who develop antibody will have protective immunity,” he said. “The question is how long.”

On NBC’s “Today” show, top infectious-disease specialist Anthony S. Fauci said some states are seeing the outbreak wane. Although the number of cases has not yet peaked in several cities, he said the country is experiencing a flattening of the curve.

“We are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

By Marisa Iati and John Wagner

April 15, 2020 at 8:34 AM EDT

Tour de France rescheduled for August and September

PARIS â€" The 2020 Tour de France will be held in between Aug. 29 and Sept. 20 instead of in June and July because of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers announced Wednesday.

The annual bicycle race, one of the most anticipated events of the year in France, was postponed after French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that all large-scale public gatherings through July would be suspended, as part of the country’s continued effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

But on Wednesday, organizers released a statement detailing the new dates for the race, which typically draws millions of viewers from around the world. The multi-stage route from Nice in southern France to Paris will remain as planned.

“We hope that the 2020 edition will help to turn the page on the difficult days that we are currently experiencing around the world,” the organizers said.

The Tour de France was last canceled in 1946, as France recovered from the destruction of World War II. The cycling event also was not held during World War I a generation before.

France’s current lockdown period will continue until May 11, after which point mainly schools will “progressively” reopen, the government has said. Restaurants, cafes, theaters and other small businesses will remain closed.

By James McAuley

April 15, 2020 at 8:33 AM EDT

Viral video spotlights ethnic minorities saving Britain as coronavirus sweeps the country

LONDON â€" A video spotlighting the work being done by first-, second- and third-generation immigrants living and working in Britain amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak has been widely praised online for its powerful and hard-hitting messaging.

Titled “You Clap for Me Now,” the video rapidly went viral and has been viewed more than 3 million times since being shared on Twitter by British comedian Tez Ilyas on Tuesday evening local time. As of Wednesday morning, the hashtag #YouClapForMeNow had been used over 37,000 times.

Based on a recent poem by writer Darren James Smith, the two-minute video, created in a week, features voices from people of a wide range of nationalities who are working round-the-clock to help the country stay afloat and win the war against an infection that has so far claimed more than 12,000 lives in the United Kingdom.

By Jennifer Hassan

April 15, 2020 at 8:24 AM EDT

‘I’m a miracle walking’: A woman gave birth in a coma while fighting coronavirus

When Angela Primachenko awoke from a week-long, medically induced coma on April 6, she was disoriented from all of the medications in her body.

She also lost her pregnant belly and gained a newborn daughter while doctors kept her unconscious so that her body could fight a severe case of covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

“I just woke up and all of a sudden I didn’t have my belly anymore,” she told NBC’s “Today” show from her home in Vancouver, Wash. “It was just extremely mind-blowing.”

By Katie Shepherd

April 15, 2020 at 8:19 AM EDT

Toilet paper dodgeball and theme dinners: How bored families are surviving coronavirus lockdown

To fully understand the “Quarantine Olympics,” a zany Internet trend born amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, look no further than where it all started: the Presley family’s home in Cornelius, N.C.

If anyone had peeked inside the tree-lined residence last Wednesday evening, they would have witnessed the Presleys playing dodgeball â€" with a twist. None of the players could see each other, and instead of balls, they were armed with full rolls of toilet paper.

“We played through all the board games and everything, so we had to get creative,” Alex Presley, 25, who has been hunkering down with his girlfriend, twin brother and parents since last month, told The Washington Post.

By Allyson Chiu

April 15, 2020 at 7:49 AM EDT

Terror in the countryside, coronavirus in the city: In Burkina Faso, there’s no haven

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso â€" On the day Burkina Faso reported its first coronavirus death, militants killed four men in a northwestern village. A few evenings later, as four government ministers tested positive for the virus, attackers torched a national park office and kidnapped a forest ranger. As confirmed cases multiplied into hundreds, gunmen abducted a rural town’s head nurse, stole military gear in violent raids and summarily executed several soldiers.

In this West African nation engulfed by conflict and the pandemic, every day brings more chaos and infection, rendering those caught in the middle doubly vulnerable. Both threats are overwhelming the government.

Since the first case emerged in China, at least 850 people have died because of unrest in Burkina Faso, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project’s estimates. The virus itself had claimed 27 lives by Friday, and the number of cases jumped to 497.

More than 100 health centers in Burkina Faso have been forced to close. Militants are blocking food, water and medicine trucks in their quest to grab territory in the north and east. Stopping disease in such conditions “will last longer than all epidemiological forecasts,” said Jerry-Jonas Mbasha, the cluster coordinator here for the World Health Organization.

Paquette reported from Washington.

By Henry Wilkins and Danielle Paquette

April 15, 2020 at 7:38 AM EDT

One economist advising Trump on reopening the country reportedly called him a ‘10 out of 10 narcissist’

The scores of people the White House said Tuesday will advise President Trump on the reopening of the country include Larry Lindsey, a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush, who last year reportedly called Trump a “10 out of 10 narcissist” and compared his long-term planning ability to that of an “empty chair.”

Lindsey was among the participants listed as part of the “Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups” that will advise Trump, starting Wednesday in a series of phone calls. It was not entirely clear how some participants landed on the list, which is divided by sectors, including financial services, health care and hospitality. Lindsey is among a dozen people listed in a group labeled “thought leaders.”

Lindsey made headlines in May 2019 after making a closed-door presentation to House Republicans about the U.S.-China trade war at the invitation of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

According to reports in both Politico and The Washington Post, Lindsey also came prepared with research on Trump’s character, telling Republican lawmakers that he had asked two psychologists to evaluate the president from afar. The professionals found that Trump was a “10 out of 10 narcissist,” Lindsey told the Republicans, according to a GOP aide present at the talk who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “That’s what he scored,” Lindsey said, clarifying that this was not just his opinion.

Lindsey continued with more armchair psychology, diagnosing Trump’s behavior as a symptom of his upbringing and a mother who didn’t pay enough attention to him, according to The Post’s report.

Lindsey also compared Trump’s long-term planning ability to that of an “empty chair,” The Post reported.

By John Wagner

April 15, 2020 at 7:38 AM EDT

Bill Gates calls Trump cutting WHO funding during pandemic ‘as dangerous as it sounds’

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates criticized President Trump’s decision to suspend funding to the World Health Organization as “dangerous,” saying the payments should continue particularly during the global coronavirus pandemic.

“Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds,” Gates tweeted early Wednesday. “Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever.”

The United States, the organization’s largest donor, has committed to provide the WHO with $893 million during its current two-year funding period, a State Department spokesperson told The Washington Post.

By Timothy Bella

April 15, 2020 at 7:36 AM EDT

As humans stay indoors, wild animals take back what was once theirs

For centuries, humans have pushed wildlife into smaller and smaller corners of the planet. But now, with billions of people in coronavirus isolation and city streets emptied, nature is pushing back. Wild boar have descended onto the streets of Barcelona. Mountain goats have overtaken a town in Wales. Whales are chugging into Mediterranean shipping lanes. And turtles are finally getting some peace.

While some stories of animal invasion that have gone viral have been fake â€" it turns out elephants didn’t get drunk on Chinese corn wine and pass out in a tea garden â€" the apparent resiliency of the natural world is leavening a global tragedy with brief moments of wonderment. For people. And, apparently, for animals, too.

“The goats absolutely love it,” said Andrew Stuart, a resident of Llandudno, Wales. He saw the goats stroll into town one recent night and has watched since then as they have availed themselves of its offerings. They have munched on windowsill flowers. Convened in parking lots. Strutted down emptied streets.

“They’re taking the town back. It’s now theirs. Nothing is stopping them," Stuart said.

By Terrence McCoy

April 15, 2020 at 7:32 AM EDT

U.S. allies rally behind World Health Organization, after Trump suspends payments

BERLIN â€" President Trump’s decision to temporarily suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) in response to its handling of the coronavirus pandemic triggered international statements of support for the United Nations agency on Wednesday.

While Trump’s criticism of the WHO is being shared by others, arguing that the agency is unwilling to hold Beijing sufficiently accountable for its mistakes, close U.S. allies said Wednesday they vehemently disagreed with a suspension of payments.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison echoed concerns voiced by Trump and others by saying the WHO is “not immune from criticism.” But he added: “The WHO also as an organization does a lot of important work."

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern outright rejected Trump’s criticism of the agency, saying that “at a time like this when we need to be sharing information and we need to have advice we can rely on, the WHO has provided that. We will continue to support it and continue to make our contributions."

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter that “apportioning blame doesn’t help."

Trump’s decision to suspend payments to the organization has predominantly been seen by his critics in the United States and abroad as a ploy to distract from criticism of his own handling of the crisis. But there are mounting concerns that Trump’s move could derail rather than encourage reforms within the agency, as U.S. foes including Russia and China are now rallying behind it.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres appeared to acknowledge that possibility Tuesday, saying “it is possible that the same facts have had different readings by different entities.”

“Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis,” Guterres said. But he added: “Now is not that time.”

By Rick Noack

April 15, 2020 at 7:31 AM EDT

Protesters organizing ‘anti-quarantine’ rallies in Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio

Some are planning to crowd the roads. Others will use their car horns. And a few are protesting in person â€" and, safe to say, there is no social distancing involved.

Amid growing uneasiness about stay-at-home orders, conservative groups around the country are organizing in-person or drive-by protests at statehouses to call on their governors to reopen the economy.

At noon on Wednesday, a motorcade organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund is set to crowd roads in Lansing in what has been dubbed “Operation Gridlock.”

Protesters have been instructed to make noise and cause disruption while driving by, the Lansing State Journal reported, in objection to what they say are “erratic, unilateral orders that threaten Michiganders’ economic existence.”

Rosanne Ponkowski, the coalition’s president, said the stay-at-home order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) â€" whom she called a “radical leftist” â€" would end up forcing small businesses to close permanently. Whitmer’s directive has been scrutinized for some inconsistencies and was extended earlier this week.

In North Carolina, another group has planned recurring demonstrations to “ReopenNC” by May. On Tuesdays through the end of the month, they plan to honk every 15 minutes for four hours near the state’s legislative building.

People “have the right to decide their own comfort level with any and all pathogens and viruses,” co-founder Ashley Smith told the News & Observer, “just like we have done for every other illness that has come through our state and nation.”

Demonstrators in Ohio, meanwhile, are taking their messaging even more directly.

On Monday, a crowd of about 100 people gathered outside the statehouse in Columbus â€" in some cases, pressing their heads against the glass with no face masks on â€" as Gov. Mike DeWine (R) gave his daily news briefing, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 7:08 AM EDT

Dubai’s first skyscraper becomes a coronavirus hospital

For a city that has become known for the world’s tallest skyscraper flanked by a fantastical array of only slightly smaller gleaming towers, the venerable Dubai World Trade Center holds a special place as this emirate’s first tall building.

Built in 1979 at a then astounding 39 stories, it once towered over a flat empty desert studded with a few low-rise buildings, a symbol of this traditional Persian Gulf trading hub’s future ambitions. It was the tallest building in the Middle East for a while, though now it is dwarfed by the 2009 Burj Khalifa, which is several times its height and has more than 160 floors.

On Wednesday, it was announced that the World Trade Center, now a trade exhibition space, has been converted into a 3,000-bed hospital for those suffering from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. On Thursday, Dubai Health Authority said it would establish two new field hospitals to deal with any influx of new patients.

The United Arab Emirates announced 412 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total in the country to 4,933 â€" a figure that has increased sevenfold since the beginning of the month, when 664 cases were reported. Twenty-eight deaths have been confirmed.

Dubai, the most populous of the seven emirates making up the country, appears to be the hardest hit. It has the harshest restrictions on the population, including a 24-hour lockdown that requires applying online for permission to leave the home. Excursions for exercise or walking pets are not permitted and those driving must wear masks inside the car or face fines of around $270.

With the all-important tourism industry halted as all incoming flights are canceled, a number of the city’s renowned luxury hotels have been used to house people who are under quarantine.

Experts have told local media that the flood of cases should abate in the next month.

By Paul Schemm

April 15, 2020 at 6:57 AM EDT

U.S. and other countries face prolonged, painful recovery as global economy contracts sharply

A return to normal activity in the United States appears likely to take months longer than President Trump has indicated.

While White House officials eye May 1 as a potential restart date, activity in key parts of the U.S. economy suggests that Americans will not be able to return to business as usual that quickly.

Permits for new single-family homes are headed for an April decline of up to 50 percent, which will probably depress construction activity for months, Goldman Sachs said Tuesday. With consumers reluctant to brave crowded movie theaters anytime soon, Disney this week officially delayed the scheduled mid-June opening of “Soul,” an animated Pixar film, to Thanksgiving. And Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said Americans will return to work only gradually, depending upon conditions in individual regions and industries.

By David Lynch

April 15, 2020 at 6:41 AM EDT

Domestic violence complaints soar in Turkey during coronavirus outbreak, statistics and complaints show

ISTANBUL â€" Domestic violence cases in Turkey have soared in the weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began, as families are confined to their homes, according to police statistics and women’s rights advocates.

Domestic abuse cases in Istanbul, the country’s largest city, rose 38 percent in March compared with the previous year, police statistics published this month by the state-run Anadolu news agency show. A survey prepared by the Socio Political Field Research Center, which investigates human rights issues, found 46 percent of respondents said the quarantine period in Turkey “triggers violence against women and children.” The survey was conducted in 28 cities across the country in early April and released on Saturday.

Turkey reported its first coronavirus case on March 11.

Other countries have reported similar increases in domestic violence, as governments have imposed lockdowns or otherwise restricted movement. Such measures “can trap women with abusive partners,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said in a speech earlier this month.

“Over the past weeks as economic and social pressures and fears have grown, we have seen horrifying global surge in domestic violence. In some countries the number of women calling support services has doubled,” he said.

Fidan Ataselim, an activist for the We Will Stop Femicide Platform in Turkey, said the actual numbers of domestic abuse cases are far higher than the official figures indicate, in part due to the difficulty of reporting abuse during the coronavirus outbreak. Women are hesitant to obtain abuse reports from hospitals for fear of catching the virus, and they are reluctant to report abuse because even after doing so, they would be confined at home with their abusers, Ataselim said.

“We are missing data in terms of real domestic abuse, but we will see these numbers in the killings of women,” Ataselim added. In March, 25 women were killed by male partners or relatives, according to reports gathered by the group.

By Zeynep Karatas

April 15, 2020 at 6:18 AM EDT

South Korea is holding an election even as it rebounds from coronavirus pandemic

SEOUL â€" On her second day of mandatory self-quarantine on Wednesday, Jung Min-ji was allowed out for 100 minutes to vote in South Korea’s legislative elections.

She put on a mask and walked to a local polling station, the sole permitted destination. Her walk was location-tracked by a governmental app on her smartphone developed to monitor quarantined citizens. After regular voters had left, she entered the polling booth, cast her ballot and returned home to fulfill the remaining days of her two-week isolation.

Citizens of South Korea, including tens of thousands under quarantine, voted Wednesday as the country became the first to hold a national election in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic.

By Min Joo Kim

April 15, 2020 at 6:11 AM EDT

Man released from jail due to coronavirus allegedly killed someone the next day

In mid-March, when Florida was reporting only about 50 cases of the novel coronavirus, police in Tampa booked Joseph Edward Williams into jail.

The 26-year-old had been charged on two drug-related counts â€" a third-degree felony and a first-degree misdemeanor, according to jail records. His bail was set so low that he could have walked out after paying $250, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

He would not need to: Less than a week later, Williams and more than 150 others locked up in Hillsborough County, Fla., jails were released as part of an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

By then, Florida was reporting more than eight times as many infections, and Sheriff Chad Chronister decided it was necessary to release inmates accused of low-level, nonviolent crimes. Other counties and states nationwide were taking similar measures, fearing crowded facilities could become a hotbed for the virus.

Yet less than 48 hours after Williams was released, an unidentified man in Tampa was shot and killed. Police now say Williams was responsible for the incident, which did not appear to be random.

“There is no question Joseph Williams took advantage of this health emergency to commit crimes while he was out of jail,” Chronister said in a statement.

Criminal justice officials have faced “difficult decisions” balancing public health with public safety during the pandemic, he added, suggesting Williams’s second arrest appears to show the toll of those choices.

On Monday, Williams was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, resisting an officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He is now being held without bond, the sheriff’s office said.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 5:48 AM EDT

Florida judge rejects Mike Huckabee’s lawsuit over beach closure

A federal judge in Florida has rejected former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee’s emergency motion to use the beach behind his Florida home.

Walton County, Fla., has barred all beach access due to fears that people congregating in large groups could spread the coronavirus. Last week, Huckabee and 14 others with beachfront homes in the county sued, alleging that Walton County’s decision to close beaches amounted to unconstitutional seizure of private property.

The ordinance will “force family members into a confined space within a house rather than allow them to social distance and recreate in their sandy backyard,” the property owners’ lawsuit claimed. “Or it forces them to public locations to recreate potentially closer to many other persons that may have covid-19.”

District Judge Roger Vinson denied the request for an injunction in a closed telephone hearing on Monday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. In a brief filed before the hearing, attorneys for Walton County argued that the homeowners “will not be able to use a small portion of their unfenced in open beach property for a limited period of time.”

“Under the existing emergency circumstances of the global pandemic, this restriction is reasonable,” the county contended.

By Antonia Farzan

April 15, 2020 at 5:46 AM EDT

China says U.S. should fulfill its global responsibilities through WHO

China has urged the United States to “earnestly fulfill its obligations and responsibilities” to the World Health Organization, after President Trump said he would suspend funding for the United Nations agency at the forefront of the pandemic response.

Trump has repeatedly accused the WHO of being too close to China, charging that the organization was complicit in a Chinese coverup of the novel coronavirus outbreak. He has also criticized the agency for opposing his decision in late January to block most air travel from China.

Responding to Trump’s decision to suspend the U.S. funding to the WHO for up to three months, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China had “serious concerns” and that the WHO was playing an “irreplaceable role” in the global public health crisis.

“Efforts to fight the epidemic are now at a critical stage worldwide, and this U.S. decision will weaken the WHO’s capability and undermine international cooperation,” Zhao told reporters at a news briefing in Beijing.

“It will affect all countries, including the United States, and especially those countries with fragile systems and capabilities,” he said. “We urge the U.S. to earnestly fulfill its obligations and responsibilities to support the WHO in leading these international efforts.”

The WHO has been widely criticized during the pandemic response as being too beholden to China and unwilling to chastise Beijing for its mistakes, while going to great lengths to avoid antagonizing the Chinese government politically.

By Anna Fifield and Liu Yang

April 15, 2020 at 5:25 AM EDT

Chinese leaders knew about severity of epidemic six days before warning public, AP reports

China’s leaders waited six days after determining a new coronavirus was breaking out in Wuhan before warning citizens of the potential for infection, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, citing internal documents.

There have been widespread reports that Chinese leaders tried to cover up the outbreak at the beginning and the documents appear to substantiate these claims.

The head of China’s National Health Commission, Ma Xiaowei, told health officials in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, in a teleconference on Jan. 14 that they were facing a major challenge.

“The epidemic situation is still severe and complex, the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, and is likely to develop into a major public health event,” a memo about the call cites Ma as saying.

Six days before Chinese officials publicly stated that the coronavirus could be spread between people, the memo said that “clustered cases suggest that human-to-human transmission is possible.”

“With the coming of the Spring Festival, many people will be traveling, and the risk of transmission and spread is high,” it added.

The National Health Commission responded to the AP in a statement saying China had published information on the outbreak in an “open, transparent, responsible and timely manner,” in accordance with “important instructions” repeatedly issued by President Xi Jinping.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Wednesday in Beijing that “the accusations of China’s so called non-transparency are just not fair, they are just unworthy for the huge sacrifices Chinese people have made.”

Separately, the former head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, said Wednesday that China should have to answer for its delay and deceit about the virus.

“There is deep anger in America at what they see as having been inflicted on us all by China and China is evading a good deal of responsibility for the origin of the virus, for failing to deal with it initially,” said John Sawers, who led Britain’s foreign intelligence service for five years until 2014.

By Anna Fifield

April 15, 2020 at 5:09 AM EDT

Moscow’s efforts to stem virus outbreak creates crowds in the Metro

MOSCOW â€" They milled around in coats and jackets, crowded in the tunnels and entrances of the Moscow Metro, as if it was last year â€" before the word covid-19 was ever coined and before the pandemic had begun sickening more than 3,000 people a day in Russia.

The Moscow government’s efforts to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, through a new digital pass required for all private vehicles and public transport, created massive lines and dense crowds in the Metro, violating World Health Organization recommendations on social distancing.

“Whoever is not yet sick, will definitely get sick,” tweeted one gloomy Muscovite with the handle Fredegonda. The queues were caused by police checks of every passenger’s electronic pass against their passport.

Russia saw its largest increase in new coronavirus patients on Wednesday, up by 3,388 to nearly 25,000 cases. The country appears to be tracking the exponential growth seen in the United States and Europe, a path it had hoped to avoid by closing borders and imposing a lockdown in major cities.

For the past two weeks, Russia has seen caseload increases of 16 percent to 18 percent a day, which could also be linked to high levels of testing. So far, 198 people have died. Wednesday’s introduction of the digital passes for transport also caused massive traffic jams on roads into Moscow, with police stopping each car to check passes.

Despite police checks and fines for violating the self-isolation regime, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Saturday that people were still flouting the rules so a digital pass system for transport was required

According to the Moscow government’s coronavirus operational headquarters, Friday cellular phone data showed that 3.5 million people of the city’s 12.7 million population left their homes for at least six hours.

Sobyanin said on Saturday that pedestrians could buy essential items and walk dogs “for now.”

By Robyn Dixon

April 15, 2020 at 4:50 AM EDT

Australia’s Wagga Wagga severs ties with Chinese ‘sister city’

The Australian city of Wagga Wagga voted Tuesday to sever ties with its sister city in China because of the "death and destruction” caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The symbolic gesture was immediately criticized by elected officials, including Wagga Wagga’s mayor, Greg Conkey, who said in a statement that the proposal was pushed through when he and several others members of the city council were absent. A motion to reconsider will be debated at the council’s next meeting.

Wagga Wagga entered a sister-city arrangement with Kunming in 1988, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. During Tuesday’s meeting, Paul Funnell, the council member pushing to cut ties, said that designation amounted to an endorsement of the “Chinese communist government that delights in lies, subterfuge and coverups."

One of the dissenting councilors, Vanessa Keenan, described the move as “a cheap political point scoring exercise.” While Funnell has denied any racist intent, Wes Fang, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, warned on Tuesday that the council’s stance could encourage discrimination against Australians of Chinese descent.

“To blame our sister city for the events in Wuhan is akin to blaming our other sister city, Nördlingen in Germany, for the events of the past two world wars,” Fang said in a statement, describing the rupture as “racially motivated dog-whistling of the worst kind."

By Antonia Farzan

April 15, 2020 at 4:41 AM EDT

Alaska will allow elective medical procedures to restart

As groups of states around the country draft up plans to slowly reopen the economy, Alaska appears to be one step ahead.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) said Tuesday that he will soon allow his state’s hospitals to resume elective surgeries, lifting an earlier ban on those procedures and marking his first move to restart normal business.

“Starting today, we’re going to start to roll out the ideas, the concepts around how we get back to â€" as close as possible to â€" where we once were,” he said at a news conference, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Officials believe that Alaska’s medical system has enough protective medical equipment and hospital capacity. To fend off shortages, hospitals in most parts of the country remain banned from performing elective medical procedures.

Dunleavy also said he will allow businesses to offer alcohol for curbside pickup and let restaurants deliver beer and wine in an effort to promote more business activity.

Alaska will next look to reopening retail, though officials will continue to monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus statewide and may change course if the number of cases appears to worsen.

“This is not a full-blown, open, everything is back to normal,” Dunleavy said.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 4:30 AM EDT

Britain’s 99-year-old army veteran raises $6 million for the NHS and just keeps on walking

LONDON â€" One week ago, 99-year-old army veteran Tom Moore set himself a 1,000 pound ($1,250) fundraising target for Britain’s National Health System as it battles the country’s severe coronavirus outbreak. To raise the money, he would undertake 100 lengths of his 25-meter (27-yard) garden using his walker. The plan was to split the lengths into chunks of 10 and complete them ahead of his coming 100th birthday at the end of April.

On April 10, in just 24 hours, it was confirmed that Moore had shuffled past his 1,000 pound target and raised over 70,000 pounds. By Tuesday, four days later, he had raised 1 million pounds through the JustGiving website.

As of Wednesday morning local time, he has generated over 4.8 million pounds ($6 million) for Britain’s widely cherished but chronically underfunded National Health Service and that figure continues to grow â€" as does international interest and support for Moore.

And he’s going to keep on walking.

Moore, or “Captain Moore” as he is known on social media, served in World War II and now lives in Bedfordshire, England. “No words can express our gratitude,” his daughter, Hannah, told BBC Radio 5 on Wednesday, adding that the family once hesitantly dreamed that they might raise as much as £5,000 by the end of the month.

She also revealed that Moore had suffered a broken hip in the past and the injury had made him less independent but that his new found fame and fundraising target has given him a newfound sense of purpose. “He is articulate, he is alive, I think he’ll do this until everyone says stop,” she said.

Around the world people are using the hashtag #walkwithtom to offer their well wishes to the veteran. Children across Britain are making and decorating birthday cards for Captain Tom and sending them to his address to help him celebrate turning 100.

By Jennifer Hassan

April 15, 2020 at 4:00 AM EDT

India to start easing nationwide lockdown in just five days

NEW DELHI â€" India intends to relax some aspects of its nationwide lockdown starting April 20, particularly in rural areas.

Home to more than 1.3 billion people, India has instituted one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, with a sweeping ban on most forms of transportation and nonessential industries. On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced such measures would be extended until May 3 as confirmed coronavirus cases in the country rose above 10,000.

A day later, however, the government issued new guidelines indicating some restrictions would be relaxed from Monday onward, an acknowledgment of the human and economic cost of the lockdown, especially for migrant workers. Fisheries, animal husbandry and coffee and tea plantations will be allowed to function, as will businesses ancillary to agriculture, including farm machinery and fertilizers. Construction activities, government-funded employment projects and industries located in rural areas can also resume.

Other industries on the list of permitted activities: coal production, oil and gas exploration, packaging materials and manufacturing units located in special economic zones. The guidelines instruct businesses to ensure social distancing by using fewer employees or staggered shifts.

By Joanna Slater

April 15, 2020 at 3:49 AM EDT

Vietnam threatens fines for spreading ‘fake news’

Vietnam will fine people who share false, distorted, or slanderous information on social media in a new decree that took effect on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Online comments about the coronavirus have been rapidly spreading in the Southeast Asian country, the news agency reports, and officials had already fined hundreds for posting misinformation about it.

The new decree drafted in February extends existing statutes to include what authorities are calling “fake news,” with steep penalties. Anyone who violates the order faces a fine between $430 and $850, which can amount to several months of a basic Vietnamese salary.

Vietnam’s mandate is the latest in a wave of laws amid the global pandemic that criminalize fake news, as governments look to crack down on bogus cures, false reports and a conspiracy theories with hefty fines and jail sentences.

Officials in nearby Thailand and Indonesia have arrested several people for allegedly spreading virus hoaxes, while the United Arab Emirates has warned about online laws that can land violators in jail for up to three years.

Other countries have jumped on the outbreak to push restrictive agendas that effectively let leaders define misinformation for themselves.

Singapore is justifying the sweeping fake-news laws introduced last year, The Washington Post’s Shibani Mahtani reported. Hungary’s far-right prime minister, meanwhile, is ruling by decree and can determine what counts as “fake news” â€" and thus, what can be punished with up to five years of prison time.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 3:20 AM EDT

German zoo may have to feed some animals to each other

With no income coming in, one German zoo is preparing to take extraordinary measures if the country’s lockdown continues.

“We’ve listed the animals we’ll have to slaughter first,” Verena Kaspari, director of the privately run Neumünster Zoo, told Die Welt. If things get worse, she added, some animals will be killed to feed others.

Other zoos have similar plans in place, though it’s a subject that many in the industry would prefer not to talk about, Kaspari told the paper. She later clarified in an interview with RTL that endangered species wouldn’t be slaughtered. Instead, animals that aren’t in danger of going extinct and are used as sources of meat for humans would be the first to go.

Since closing to visitors in March, the Neumünster Zoo has been relying on small donations from children and retirement homes, Die Welt reported. Easter is typically the busiest time of year for zoos in Germany, and with no revenue from gate fees or concessions, many are bleeding money.

Pointing out that animals still have to be fed, and their caretakers need to be paid, Germany’s zoo association has asked the government for more than 100 million euros ($109 million) in aid to cover the shortfalls.

“Even in these times, the lions need their daily portion of meat, the tapirs their alfalfa hay, and each seal eats three to four kilograms of fish a day,” Mirko Thiel, who oversees the largest zoo in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, told DPA.

By Antonia Farzan

April 15, 2020 at 3:00 AM EDT

Idaho Republicans push back on GOP governor’s stay-at-home order

It’s not just Democratic governors who are facing blowback for their lockdown orders.

In Idaho, some top Republican state lawmakers have slammed Gov. Brad Little (R) in recent days, suggesting his efforts to curb the spread of the virus have taken too much of a toll on the state’s economy.

Little has allowed restaurants to continue drive-through services and deliveries, but conservative members of his party have urged him to reconsider a statewide stay-home decree and argued that the state’s residents â€" or at least, local officials â€" should be allowed to make decisions on their own.

On Tuesday, State House Speaker Scott Bedke (R) called on Little to cede his “ill advised” response efforts to Idaho’s seven public health districts, according to Boise State Public Radio.

In a letter to the governor, Bedke said state policy should “trust that our Idaho people will move forward with knowledge, caution and common sense.” Although he acknowledged the state legislature’s authority is limited, the lawmaker seemed to warn that Little’s stay-at-home could sour his ties with his own party in future legislative sessions.

“Let’s continue informing our citizens about the health risks and then, to the greatest degree possible, let them govern themselves,” he wrote.

Another letter, from a sheriff in fiercely libertarian northern Idaho, demanded Little “reinstate our Constitution” while questioning whether the World Health Organization was releasing reliable information on the virus.

“You can request those that are sick to stay home, but, at the same time, you must release the rest of us to go on with our normal business,” Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler wrote, according to the Associated Press.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 2:37 AM EDT

Trump wants to declare country open by May 1 â€" but the reality will be much slower

A scramble is underway inside the White House to determine how to stagger a reopening of the economy amid the novel coronavirus pandemic while also protecting Trump from any political fallout.

Within Trump’s circle, officials say, there is acknowledgment that it will not be possible for the president to simply flip a switch. A return to normal likely would take many months, administration officials said, and should be orchestrated methodically and guided by medical data. For instance, officials are considering beginning with areas deemed to have the lowest risk of a major outbreak.

By Philip Rucker, Robert Costa and Ashley Parker

April 15, 2020 at 2:06 AM EDT

Health emergency extended to all U.S. military bases in Japan

The U.S. military declared on Wednesday a public health emergency for all its bases in Japan, as the country experiences a surge in reported infections of the novel coronavirus.

U.S. Forces Japan, a subset of the military’s joint Asia-Pacific operation, had previously declared an emergency only for the country’s eastern Kanto region, including Tokyo.

The public health emergency will last until May 15, officials said in a statement, and it allows military commanders to enforce health protection measures on the dozens of facilities they oversee across Japan.

The order will apply to 50,000 military personnel as well as tens of thousands of their family members and civilian contractors, mostly concentrated on the southern island of Okinawa.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency in the country’s most hard-hit prefectures, although he has not ordered any kind of lockdown.

By Teo Armus

April 15, 2020 at 1:21 AM EDT

New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern to take a 20 percent pay cut

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that she and other top officials will take a 20 percent pay cut for the next six months in a display of solidarity with people who are losing income because of the pandemic.

“We feel acutely the struggle that many New Zealanders are facing,” Ardern, who is up for reelection in September, said in a news briefing that was live-streamed on Facebook. “If there was ever a time to close the gap between groups of people across New Zealand in different positions, it is now."

Ardern’s annual salary is 459,739 New Zealand dollars (about $279,000 in U.S. dollars), meaning she would lose 45,573 New Zealand dollars over a six-month period, the New Zealand Herald reported. Government ministers in Ardern’s cabinet and public service chief executives will also see an equivalent pay reduction, effective immediately.

Though the amount of money saved on their salaries won’t have much of an impact on the government’s overall fiscal health, “it’s about leadership,” Ardern said. “This was always just going to be an acknowledgment of the hit that many New Zealanders will be taking at the moment.”

New Zealand has been under strict shelter-in-place orders for three weeks, and is expected to weather a crushing economic blow from the pandemic. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the country’s economy will shrink by 7.2 percent this year, the largest contraction expected outside of Europe and Venezuela.

If tough lockdown measures remain in place past the end of this month, New Zealand’s Treasury anticipates that 1 in 4 residents could be left jobless. Ardern has indicated that her government will make a decision about whether to extend the shutdown by April 20. “We are very aware of the need to get our economy running as soon as possible,” she said Monday.

By Antonia Farzan

April 15, 2020 at 12:45 AM EDT

Analysis: The pandemic is ravaging the world’s poor, even if they’re untouched by the virus

But even if the virus doesn’t spread in packed cities and towns where effective social distancing is impossible, the pandemic will have already exacted a bitter price. For hundreds of millions of people suddenly stripped of livelihoods, daily wages and the means for their families’ survival, poverty may kill sooner than the coronavirus.

By Ishaan Tharoor

April 15, 2020 at 12:21 AM EDT

China reports drop in new cases amid border crackdown

China reported 46 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, a significant drop from earlier in the week, the country’s National Health Commission said on Wednesday.

On Sunday, 108 new cases were reported, and 89 were reported on Monday. Most involved travelers returning to China from overseas, which prompted the country to close portions of the border with Russia and tighten quarantine requirements in cities along the frontier.

The northeastern portion of the country, along the Russian border, continues to be a primary area of concern. Of the new cases reported on Tuesday, 36 were found in people who had recently been abroad, while the majority of locally transmitted infections were found in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.

China has been tracking asymptomatic cases separately, and does not include those instances in the count of confirmed cases. On Tuesday, health officials reported 57 new asymptomatic cases, a slight increase from the day before.

One new fatality was reported in Hubei, the province where the outbreak began.

By Antonia Farzan

April 15, 2020 at 12:19 AM EDT

Airlines, administration reach deal on coronavirus aid package

Ten U.S. airlines have reached an agreement in principle to accept $25 billion in grants from the government â€" a cash infusion the industry hopes will buy it time as it navigates through unprecedented economic upheaval fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that Alaska Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, SkyWest Airlines and Southwest Airlines have all indicated they would participate in the program, part of the $2 trillion economic stimulus program signed by President Trump last month.

By Lori Aratani and Ian Duncan

April 15, 2020 at 12:18 AM EDT

In unprecedented move, Treasury orders Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks

The Treasury Department has ordered President Trump’s name printed on stimulus checks the Internal Revenue Service is rushing to send to tens of millions of Americans, a process that could slow their delivery by a few days, senior IRS officials said.

The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, “President Donald J. Trump” will appear on the left side of the payment.

It will be the first time a president’s name appears on an IRS disbursement, whether a routine refund or one of the handful of checks the government has issued to taxpayers in recent decades either to stimulate a down economy or share the dividends of a strong one.

By Lisa Rein

April 15, 2020 at 12:17 AM EDT

Europe starts to walk the ‘tightrope’ out of coronavirus lockdown

BERLIN â€" As they take their first tentative steps toward lifting coronavirus lockdowns, European governments face a precarious balancing act, with any misstep potentially deadly.

Leaders must weigh costs to the economy, mental health and education against the potential for a spike in cases that snaps back any progress toward “flattening the curve.”

The first easing of restrictions began this week, with Austria reopening some nonessential businesses Tuesday. Denmark is expected to allow children to return to school this week. And Spain has allowed construction and factory workers to go back, though a national lockdown otherwise remains in effect.

By Loveday Morris

April 15, 2020 at 12:16 AM EDT

Their Olympic dreams deferred for a year, here’s how athletes are training at home

Gyms and pools closed, and social distancing guidelines kept athletes from interacting with coaches and trainers. Each has had to find his or her own way.

Here is how U.S. athletes are adapting their normal training routines.

By Washington Post Staff

April 15, 2020 at 12:16 AM EDT

Trump’s inaccurate assertion of ‘total’ authority sparks challenge from governors

President Trump’s inaccurate assertion that he has “total” authority to reopen a nation shuttered by the coronavirus is igniting a fresh challenge from governors scrambling to manage their states and highlighting a Republican Party reluctant to defy a president who has relished pushing the boundaries of executive power.

The president’s claim, first conveyed in a tweet Monday morning and underscored at a White House news conference and subsequent social media posts, caught his aides off guard and prompted them to study whether Trump would have such authority in a time of emergency like the ongoing pandemic.

By Seung Min Kim, Josh Dawsey and Brady Dennis