Here are some significant developments:
April 17, 2020 at 11:34 PM EDT
Stimulus checks and other coronavirus relief hindered by dated technology and rocky government rolloutThe national effort to get coronavirus relief money to Americans is at risk of being overwhelmed by the worst economic downturn in 80 years, as understaffed and underfunded agencies struggle to deliver funds.
Three weeks after Congress passed a $2 trillion package to lessen the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of households and small businesses are still waiting to receive all the help promised under the legislation, according to government data and firsthand accounts.
The bulk of the challenges have occurred with three initiatives designed to get cash to struggling Americans: $1,200 per adult relief payments that launched this week, $349 billion in Small Business Administration loans, and $260 billion in unemployment benefits for the more than 22 million people â€" and growing â€" out of work.
By Heather Long, Jeff Stein, Lisa Rein and Tony Romm
April 17, 2020 at 11:17 PM EDT
Top Nigerian official dies of covid-19Abba Kyari, the Nigerian president’s chief of staff, died Friday after a nearly month-long battle with covid-19, according to a government spokesman, becoming one of the highest-ranking officials on the continent to die in the pandemic.
Kyari, who was in his 70s, was one of the most powerful figures in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, 77. He was infected with the novel coronavirus in late March and suffered from a range of health problems, including diabetes, as Reuters reported.
“The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari,†a Buhari spokesman, Geraba Shehu, tweeted.
Nigeria has reported nearly 500 confirmed coronavirus cases and 17 deaths.
By Derek Hawkins
April 17, 2020 at 10:56 PM EDT
Imprisoned child sex trafficking victim Alexis Martin to be freed due to coronavirus spreadAlexis Martin, a nationally-known child sex trafficking victim imprisoned in Ohio, will soon go free. Gov. Mike DeWine commuted her sentence Friday as a part of the state’s efforts to reduce the spread of covid-19 in prisons.
Martin, now 22, was arrested at age 15 for her alleged involvement in the death of a man who was selling her for sex. In 2013, her alleged trafficker, 36-year-old Angelo Kerney, was killed during an attempted robbery. Martin was in another room at the time, but prosecutors argued she participated in the planning of the robbery.
Although Ohio has a “safe harbor†law, which is intended to route minor victims of trafficking into diversionary programs, Martin was tried as an adult. At age 17, she was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 21 years.
Attorneys and advocates have been working to free her ever since, appealing her case all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. Judges acknowledged that there is a “clear history of human trafficking,†but declined to free Martin.
As the #MeToo movement increased awareness of child sex trafficking, Martin’s case gained more attention across the country. Earlier this month, she was featured in the documentary, “Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project,†in which Kardashian visited Martin in prison.
On Friday, DeWine called Martin a “survivor.†"She will be sent to an appropriate group home and she will be under supervision for an extensive period of time,†he said. “The facts of her case are particularly, particularly unique.â€
In recent weeks, DeWine has been praised for his early and aggressive response to the spread of covid-19. On Friday, Kardashian joined the chorus:
“Thank you Governor DeWine!!!!†she tweeted, along with a photo of Martin in prison, smiling.
By Jessica Contrera
April 17, 2020 at 10:26 PM EDT
Hundreds of nursing homes with coronavirus have violated infection-control rules in recent yearsForty percent of more than 650 nursing homes nationwide with publicly reported cases of the coronavirus have been cited more than once by inspectors in recent years for violating federal standards meant to control the spread of infections, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Since 2016, the nursing homes accrued hundreds of deficiencies for unsafe conditions that can trigger the spread of flu, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and skin diseases. Dozens were flagged by inspectors only months before the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States.
By Debbie Cenziper, Joel Jacobs and Shawn Mulcahy
April 17, 2020 at 9:59 PM EDT
Leading model projects some states could reopen by May 4. Not so fast, say other modelers.A leading coronavirus forecasting model â€" used by the White House â€" predicted Friday that some states may be able to ease social distancing restrictions and reopen as early as May 4.
But on the same day those projections were issued by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington â€" giving recommended dates for reopening all 50 states â€" a consortium of experts in Texas released a competing model that points out what they call flaws in the IHME model.
The clashing data and projections highlight the uncertainty U.S. leaders will face in coming months as they grapple with how to reopen the country and its economy without risking a resurgence of viral infections, overwhelmed hospitals and deaths.
By William Wan
April 17, 2020 at 9:39 PM EDT
Roger Stone, facing prison, calls the coronavirus outbreak ‘essentially a death sentence’Trump friend Roger Stone, who is facing a 40-month prison term for lying to Congress and witness tampering, called the novel coronavirus outbreak “essentially a death sentence†Friday in his first public comments since his September conviction, one day after a federal judge denied his motion for a new trial and lifted a gag order.
Interviewed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Stone said, “The judge has ordered me to surrender in two weeks, and at 67 years [of age], with some underlying health problems, including a history of asthma, I believe the coronavirus is essentially a death sentence.â€
Stone could ask an appeals court to reconsider the ruling and to stay his sentence. The longtime GOP media provocateur and Trump adviser demurred when Carlson asked him if he was “bitter†that he had not been pardoned by the president, answering, “At this juncture, I am praying for justice, I am praying for mercy. But I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s in God’s hands.â€
Stone misstated his surrender date. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington ordered that he may voluntarily surrender once notified that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has designated his facility, which she said could occur no sooner than in two weeks, to allow time for an appeal.
By Spencer Hsu
April 17, 2020 at 9:25 PM EDT
Cellphone data shows coronavirus kept churchgoers at home in every state on EasterCellphone data tracking Americans’ behavior shows that the vast majority of people who might normally be in church stayed away on Easter, the day churches often pull in their highest attendance of the year.
Americans’ attendance at Sunday religious services began dropping dramatically in early March, according to a Washington Post analysis of mobile location data provided by SafeGraph, a company that aggregates location data from tens of millions of devices and compares it with building footprints of all types, including grocery stores, schools and religious organizations.
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey, Kevin Schaul, Lauren Tierney and Kevin Uhrmacher
April 17, 2020 at 8:58 PM EDT
Trump’s tweets encouraging protesters draw worry from governorsThe president’s tweets seemingly encouraging protesters defying social distancing mandates drew frustration Friday from governors of the states he mentioned, as leaders under growing pressure to “reopen†their communities plead with the public to abide by stay-at-home orders.
Each states’ restrictions aimed at combating the coronavirus are in line with the White House task force’s recommendations issued last month. But with a flurry of Friday morning tweets, Trump seemed to express support for protests against three states’ rules, first tweeting “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!†then “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!†and finally “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!â€
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) worried at a news conference that the tweets could energize the protests as officials continue to warn that gatherings risk dangerous spread of the virus. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said the president’s words encouraged “illegal and dangerous acts.â€
In Minnesota, where people unhappy with the stay-at-home order gathered Friday outside the governor’s residence, Gov. Tim Walz (D) said he had yet to hear from the president and vice president after reaching out to them.
“I just have to lead,†he said. “If they’re not going to do it, we’re going to do it, and I don’t mean that critically.â€
In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said he was stretched too thin to engage in an online fight.
“As the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia I, along with my staff, are fighting a biological war,†Northam said. “I do not have time to involve myself in Twitter wars. I will continue to do everything that I can to keep Virginia safe and to save lives.â€
Asked about his tweets at Friday’s coronavirus task force briefing â€" and the seeming dissonance between them and his guidance for slowly reopening the country a day earlier â€" Trump said he feels “very comfortable†with what he said.
Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, was asked if he’s concerned to see people congregated â€" and to see that behavior encouraged. He said he can understand protesters’ frustration.
“But my main role in the task force is to make recommendations to protect the health . . . of the American people, and I would hope that people understand that,†he said.
Gregory Schneider contributed to this report.
By Hannah Knowles
April 17, 2020 at 8:54 PM EDT
Pence says states have testing capabilities for first phase of reopening; Birx unclear if there’s enough for phase two“Our best scientists and health experts assess that today we have a sufficient amount of testing to meet the requirements of phase-one reopening, if state governors should choose to do that,†Pence said at the daily White House briefing.
When asked whether there is enough testing capabilities to open under phase two, Deborah Birx, a leader on the White House task force, was less certain.
“What we will be doing is monitoring how much we have to use in phase one to really help inform phase two,†Birx said, explaining that the real unknown is asymptomatic spread. “And so if we find that there is a lot of asymptomatic individuals that we find . . . then we will have to have increased testing to cover all of those sites.â€
Phase two of the White House guidelines would lift most of the restrictions but still recommend that vulnerable populations stay at home. It does advise physical distancing when in public places while raising the cap on gatherings from 10 to 50, among other measures.
“As we’ve made clear to the governors and other health officials, we’re going to continue to scale testing,†Pence stepped in to say after Birx was finished. “We’ve given criteria, we’ve given guidance for how we think that would best operate. But we’re looking for the states, we’re looking for the governors to manage it.â€
By Angela Fritz
April 17, 2020 at 8:50 PM EDT
Fauci rejects suggestion that novel coronavirus was man-madeAnthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of President Trump’s pandemic task force, on Friday rejected suggestions the novel coronavirus was man-made.
During the White House daily briefing, Fauci said, “The mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.â€
Fauci cited evolutionary virologists who studied “the sequences there and the sequences in bats as they evolve.â€
Speculation and conspiracy theories center on a virology institute in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak began this winter. One theory suggested the crisis was the result of biological weapons research.
In interviews with The Washington Post in January, several experts said the virus was not man-made. “Based on the virus genome and properties there is no indication whatsoever that it was an engineered virus,†said Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University.
By Steven Goff
April 17, 2020 at 8:21 PM EDT
Pelosi, McConnell, McCarthy select commissioners to oversee stimulus lawHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) selected Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) to serve on the five-member Congressional Oversight Commission, a group created to serve as a watchdog over the economic relief provisions in the $2 trillion stimulus law in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Congresswoman Donna Shalala is a deeply respected and highly accomplished leader in the Congress and country, who has for decades led the fight to defend the health and economic security of the American people at the highest levels of government,†Pelosi said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also chose Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) picked Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) on Friday to serve on the panel.
Toomey is a former Wall Street trader who left finance and opened a sports bar in Allentown, Pa., before running for Congress. He led the fiscally conservative Club for Growth before he was elected to the Senate.
“Senator Toomey is one of the sharpest members of the Senate,†McConnell said. “He is a leader on economics and finance and a key member of the Finance, Banking and Budget committees. The commission will benefit greatly from his expertise.â€
Hill, a former Treasury Department official and private banker, founded and managed a community bank in Little Rock until it was sold for $66 million in 2014. He serves on the House Financial Services Committee.
In a statement, McCarthy said Hill’s background would “guide his advocacy of immediate and effective solutions for the American people struggling from the despair during this crisis.â€
Last week, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) appointed Bharat Ramamurti, a former aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), to the commission.
Under the law, the top Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate each get to appoint one member. In addition to getting their own appointments, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and McConnell are tasked with jointly naming the fifth member, who will serve as chair.
By John Wagner and Colby Itkowitz
April 17, 2020 at 8:05 PM EDT
Trump offers to send ventilators to Mexico as coronavirus cases climbMEXICO CITY â€" President Trump has agreed to provide 1,000 ventilators to Mexico to help the country deal with its rising number of coronavirus cases, officials said Friday.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tweeted that he had spoken to Trump about the recent Mexican request to purchase ventilators.
“He guaranteed that at the end of this month we would have 1,000,†the Mexican leader wrote. “And we can buy others, because our country has no restrictions on buying equipment from the United States.â€
Trump confirmed in his evening news conference that he had spoken to López Obrador â€" a “great gentleman†â€" about the ventilators. Trump said that the U.S. government would “be helping some other countries, too.â€
American governors had been desperately searching for the lifesaving ventilators as the coronavirus spread across the United States. Trump said U.S. firms were now producing enough for domestic demand.
On Wednesday, Trump offered to send ventilators to Russia.
Trump and López Obrador have formed one of the Western Hemisphere’s most unexpected political partnerships. Before taking office in December 2018, the leftist Mexican leader had been a fierce critic of the U.S. president. But López Obrador has acceded to Trump’s requests to crack down on the flow of Central American migrants crossing the country. Trump, in turn, is giving Mexico a hand on meeting cutbacks in oil output to comply with a new agreement by the world’s major petroleum producers aimed at boosting prices.
By Mary Beth Sheridan
April 17, 2020 at 7:59 PM EDT
Trump sides with protesters lashing out at Democratic governors over stay-at-home ordersTrump seemingly took the side of protesters in Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia who are defying social distancing orders to rally against the states’ safety measures intended to stop the coronavirus spread.
In back-to-back tweets, Trump wrote: “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!†then, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!†and finally, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!â€
The tweets drew some sharp criticism, including from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who has publicly clashed with the president before over Trump’s handling of the public health crisis.
“The president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19,†Inslee said in a statement. “His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence.â€
Asked specifically during the evening White House briefing about Inslee’s criticism, Trump said some states are “too tough.â€
“I think elements of what they’ve done is too much and it’s just too much,†Trump said without expanding on what orders he thinks have gone too far.
A group calling itself “Liberate Minnesota†protested outside the residence of Gov. Tim Walz (D) Friday in opposition to his stay-at-home order.
A rowdy protest outside the Michigan Capitol crowded the streets with people wearing MAGA hats and chanting “Lock her up,†referring to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
Asked whether he was concerned about people spreading the virus at these protests, Trump said, “These are people expressing their views. … They seem to be very responsible people to me. But it’s, you know, they’ve been treated a little bit rough lately.â€
Also Thursday, a smaller group protested in Virginia by holding a picnic on the Capitol grounds without social distancing or wearing masks. In California, video showed protesters gathered in Huntington Beach, carrying signs including “open Cali now.†Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) on Friday said he’s not ready to say when the stay-at-home order will be lifted.
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,†Newsom said. “We’re going to do this thoughtfully.â€
By Colby Itkowitz and Michael Brice-Saddler
April 17, 2020 at 7:56 PM EDT
Conservative group asks AG Barr to review restrictive orders by ‘petty, would-be dictators’A conservative group is asking Attorney General William P. Barr to review stay-at-home orders and other restrictions issued by state and local governments to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In a letter Friday, the Conservative Action Project criticized “rampant abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties through the myriad orders†by governors and other local leaders.
“Petty, would-be dictators are attempting [to] use the crisis as an opportunity to flex their perceived new muscles at the expense of the Constitution,†reads the letter written as protests of states’ measures against the coronavirus pop up around the country.
“We are reviewing the letter,†Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told The Post.
Last week, Barr said some of the restrictions were “draconian†and suggested they should be eased next month. He also said the Justice Department would be “keeping a careful eye on†the situation to ensure the rulings are justified.
The Conservative Action Project was founded in 2008. Its members include former attorney general Edwin Meese III, former senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp.
By Steven Goff
April 17, 2020 at 7:30 PM EDT
Trump announces $19 billion bailout to U.S. farmersThe federal government will spend $19 billion on a financial relief program to aid U.S. farmers struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic, Trump announced at Friday’s White House briefing.
The program will consist of “direct payments to farmers, as well as mass purchases of dairy, meat and agricultural produce to get that food to the people in need,†he said.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said $3 billion would be used to buy up produce, dairy and meat to distribute through food banks and other community organizations. He emphasized how “financially distressing and heartbreaking†it is for farmers to have “to dump milk or plow under vegetables†because there is not enough demand.
By Colby Itkowitz
April 17, 2020 at 6:59 PM EDT
Louisiana governor responds to protesters who want the state to reopen nowMore than a dozen protesters gathered near the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge Friday calling for Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) to suspend measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus so people can go back to work.
They waved signs and chanted messages such as, “Closing all the churches and all the schools, in America breaks all the rules,†the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate reported. The signs said, “Reopen Louisiana†and “Bankruptcy, Foreclosure & Anarchy Coming Soon.†Similar demonstrations have unfolded in other states.
“To the extent they’re saying ‘Hey, we want to open up the economy, we want businesses back open, we want people going back to work’ â€" nobody wants that more than I do," Edwards said Friday when he was asked about the protest at a news briefing. "But unlike them, I’m also charged with making sure that we promote and preserve public safety and health, and this is a public health emergency. And you have to balance all of those things at the same time.â€
Edwards thanked President Trump for offering guidance to states Thursday but leaving details to governors. Louisiana â€" which was an early hot spot and as of Friday reported 23,118 cases and 1,213 deaths â€" probably will not be ready for the first phase of reopening by May 1, Edwards said.
However, he said he hoped that the state would take its first baby step toward reopening before then by encouraging hospitals and clinics to offer non-emergency procedures again.
To lift more restrictions, the state needs greater testing capacity and a robust capability to trace anyone who was in contact with an infected person, Edwards said.
“Things won’t happen as fast here as they might in Idaho or Utah, and that’s for good reason,†he said. “We’re just not in the same place.â€
By David Montgomery and Richard A. Webster
April 17, 2020 at 6:38 PM EDT
States are starting to give guidance and dates for gradually reopeningSeveral governors in recent days have taken steps to gradually reopen their states, weighing the consequences of easing restrictions against the economic toll of prolonged closures. Nearly all of the guidelines come with caveats that require some form of social distancing.
President Trump unveiled a set of broad reopening guidelines Thursday that largely leave specifics to state leaders. On Friday, leaders in Texas, Minnesota, Montana and Vermont all announced dates for easing certain restrictions.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said state parks could reopen beginning Monday, and starting next Friday, he encouraged establishments to reopen using a “retail to go†model, in which customers pick up their items outside. More openings will be announced April 27, he said.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) discussed a “phased restart†of the state’s economy beginning Monday, which allows nonessential businesses to start work again, with a number of distancing requirements.
In Minnesota, Gov. Tim Walz (D) said outdoor activities ranging from boating to hiking can resume this weekend as businesses including golf courses, shooting ranges and bait shops open their doors.
And Gov. Steve Bullock (D) of Montana said restrictions would begin to lift April 24 â€" in phases, because “once we begin to reopen, we want to be able to stay open,†Bullock wrote in a blog post. More details will come by next week, he said, saying Montana has managed to keep its cases low and thanking the president for “recognizing that every state is different.â€
Some governors announced plans earlier this week. Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) said Wednesday that “nonessential†businesses should prepare to reopen after April 30, while Gov. Tony Evers (D) is allowing certain activities to start up again in Wisconsin. Public libraries can provide curbside pickup of books, and golf courses may open starting next week, he said â€" “with restrictions.â€
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) tweeted Friday that the process would need to be done “slowly†and emphasized the importance of distancing and tests to protect employers and customers. He said wearing masks will probably become commonplace in public spaces.
“As we move forward into this world, some things won’t change: Such as that we must assume every one of us is carrying the virus,†DeWine wrote.
By Michael Brice-Saddler and Hannah Knowles
April 17, 2020 at 6:25 PM EDT
First-of-its kind Seattle study uses at-home testing to find infections that otherwise might have gone undetectedMore than 4,000 people in the Seattle area participated in a “swab-and-send†coronavirus surveillance program that officials say is the first in the United States to detect the virus without requiring individuals to leave their homes.
The first 18 days of the greater Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) initiative identified 44 infected individuals, or 1.6 percent of those swabbed â€" “a proportion lower than that being returned through testing within the medical system, but one that may still represent thousands of unrecognized infections in the community,†King County health officials said Friday.
Individuals collected their own nasal sample at home and returned it to a lab for testing. Two-thirds had reported coronavirus symptoms within seven days of taking the test.
Based on data collected, SCAN modeling estimated the prevalence of the virus at 24 per 10,000 residents.
About three-quarters of those who tested positive had not sought medical care. That is an important statistic, said Jay Shendure, scientific director of the Brotman Baty Institute and SCAN’s lead partner, because “it allows us to identify cases that might not have otherwise gone detected and through a set of mechanisms that don’t burden the medical system.â€
“We’re working quickly to make kits available to even more people over the coming weeks and to get data into the hands of the public officials who need it,†Shendure added.
By Steven Goff
April 17, 2020 at 5:13 PM EDT
As officials weigh reopening the economy, experts still do not know how lethal the coronavirus isA fundamental question about the coronavirus pandemic remains unanswered: Just how deadly is this disease?
The case fatality rate of covid-19 varies widely from country to country. In Germany, fewer than three out of every 100 people with confirmed infections have died. In Italy the rate is almost five times higher. In the United States, the case fatality rate has steadily ticked upward, from about 1.35 percent in late March to over 4 percent on April 15.
But the number of people who are infected may be vastly greater than the official count of covid-19 cases. Without widespread testing to determine the true infection rate, it remains nearly impossible to determine precisely the lethality of the virus.
By Chris Mooney, Juliet Eilperin and Joel Achenbach
April 17, 2020 at 4:38 PM EDT
Texas governor announces concrete plans to reopen the state, beginning with state parks and to-go retailTexas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Friday that the state is beginning the process of “reopening,†one of the first to announce a specific timeline since the White House produced broad guidelines about how to do so.
In consultation with a “strike force†composed of business leaders and medical professionals, some restrictions are being lifted almost immediately, more will be announced April 27 and even more in May if certain criteria such as hospital capacity and testing are met, Abbott said at a news conference.
State parks will reopen Monday, but visitors will be required to wear face coverings. Beginning next Friday, Abbott is encouraging retail stores to reopen and operate as “retail to go,†in which customers would order ahead of time and pick up their items curbside.
Restrictions on non-coronavirus-related surgeries and procedures will also be loosened, he said. Schools, however, will remain closed through the end of the academic year.
By April 27, Abbott said it is possible that he will announce the reopening of large venues such as restaurants and movie theaters, provided they can adhere to certain social distancing protocols.
“We’ll be focusing on all strategies that may open up Texas while also keeping us protected from the expansion of covid-19,†Abbott said.
The state is under a stay-at-home order that expires April 30, but Abbott said that that could be lifted when the state announces more easing of restrictions April 27.
Correction: This post has been updated to reflect that other state leaders have given dates for beginning to ease restrictions.
By Colby Itkowitz
April 17, 2020 at 4:37 PM EDT
Wall Street posts second week of gains on hopeful developmentsU.S. stocks advanced a second straight week as governments began taking baby steps toward opening their economies and early signs suggested science may be gaining on the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged more than 700 points, or 3 percent, on Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq composite also posted strong finishes.
Markets had been flashing green all day on reports that an antiviral medicine was showing promise in severely ill covid-19 patients in a small trial in Chicago. Investors also were buoyed by the White House’s guidelines for rolling back lockdown measures in some parts of the country.
By Thomas Heath and Rachel Siegel
April 17, 2020 at 4:05 PM EDT
Authorities seek prison escapee who said he fled to avoid contracting coronavirusFederal authorities filed charges Friday against a prison escapee who, in an interview a day earlier with a North Carolina newspaper, said he fled to avoid contracting the novel coronavirus.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, 54-year-old Richard R. Cephas told the News & Observer in Raleigh that he has a medical condition called neutropenia, which affects white blood cells and puts him at high risk of catching the virus.
On Friday, Cephas told the paper he will consider surrendering. He was reported missing from a prison camp in Butner, N.C., since April 2. The facility has reported 66 confirmed cases among prisoners and 25 among staff.
In a written statement, Robert J. Higdon Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, called Cephas’s escape “nothing more than an opportunistic move to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to cut his prison term short.â€
Cephas was almost three years into a 5 ½-year sentence for drug offenses, the News & Observer reported.
By Steven Goff
April 17, 2020 at 3:27 PM EDT
The first coronavirus case in northeast Syria was detected 2 weeks ago. The local authorities were only informed today.Kurdish authorities in the region of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops are based slammed the World Health Organization for failing to inform them until now that a man who died in the area April 2 was found to have been infected with the coronavirus, the first evidence that covid-19 has taken hold in the region.
The unidentified man fell ill and was taken to a hospital in Hasaka on March 22, according to a statement issued by the region’s health directorate. On March 27, he was given a coronavirus test, which was sent to Damascus, the only location in Syria where testing is available. On April 2, the man died, after having been transferred to a government hospital in the city of Qamishli.
The same day, the man’s case was included among six new coronavirus infections, the statement said. But the WHO, which is coordinating Syria’s coronavirus response, did not tell local authorities that one of those cases was from their area until Friday, meaning that the disease has been circulating unchecked for the past two weeks.
“We, the health directorate, blame the World Health Organization for the existence and the spread of coronavirus among our citizens, because it has covered up a suspected case and did not inform the autonomous administration,†said the statement, referring to the self-proclaimed autonomous region governing the northeast.
The WHO should have alerted the authorities, the statement added, because it knows that the Syrian government does not cooperate with the Kurdish authorities.
The WHO confirmed that the man who died had tested positive for the coronavirus. A spokesman did not immediately comment on the criticisms that it had failed to inform the Kurdish authorities but said contact tracing had been carried out after the test came back positive.
The remote area, where U.S. troops are based as part of the fight against the Islamic State, has taken precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, including a curfew. But aid workers and health officials say it lacks the facilities, equipment and resources to cope with a large-scale outbreak.
By Liz Sly
April 17, 2020 at 3:11 PM EDT
Thousands continue to die daily in Europe, even as some peaks have passedAnother 847 people died in hospitals in the United Kingdom in the last 24 hours from the novel coronavirus, the U.K.’s Health Ministry reported Friday.
In France, 761 people died, 418 of them in hospitals and 343 in nursing homes. In Italy, 575 people died over the same period, a considerable decline from the country’s peak in deaths at the end of March.
Each of the three countries is at a different stage of its epidemic. But the death counts underscore the toll the virus continues to take across Europe, even as the pandemic ebbs and flows in intensity and pressure grows on governments to find ways to reopen parts of their economies.
“Today’s number of announced deaths indicates three things. Firstly, the UK is one of the hardest hit countries in the world from this first wave,†James Naismith, the director of the U.K.’s Rosalind Franklin Institute, told Reuters.
“Secondly, the UK seems to have passed the peak for the first wave,†Naismith said. “Finally, we will likely see only a gradual decrease from the peak and this means we will see several hundreds of announced deaths every day for some time ahead.â€
By Miriam Berger
April 17, 2020 at 3:09 PM EDT
States extend restrictions as calls for reopening the country mountThe governor of Mississippi pleaded with his state’s residents Friday to have more patience with stay-at-home and business closure policies, at a time when leaders of many states are struggling to balance the restrictions with fierce calls to restart the economy.
“I have to ask you for one more week. One more week of vigilance. One more week of sheltering in place,†Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said Friday, the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reported. “We need one more week to break the back of our enemy."
But Reeves also reminded his state of his desire to end restrictions as the crushing economic loss during the pandemic further snowballs. The state has experienced a 14,000 percent spike in lost jobs, he said Thursday on Twitter.
“This is insane â€" the bleeding has to stop. Lives depend on this as well. Please pray for wisdom as we consider all options,†he said. “Our people can’t take much more.â€
This week, New York and the District of Columbia extended their stay-at-home orders through at least May 15.
Protests have erupted in several states to pressure governors to end restrictions, including in Michigan. In an ABC interview defending her policies, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) that “it’s better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under.â€
She expressed optimism that some restrictions could ease by May 1.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) laid out a reopening plan Friday that he said would require benchmarks, like having adequate protective equipment for medical workers and data showing a decline in new cases. He did not provide a timeline.
Minnesota will loosen some business and recreation restrictions, including golfing, boating bait shops, outdoor shooting ranges and other activities, according to the Minneapolis-based Star-Tribune. Earlier this month, Gov. Tim Walz (D) extended restrictions to May 4.
By Alex Horton
April 17, 2020 at 2:29 PM EDT
Taylor Swift cancels all her 2020 showsSinger-songwriter Taylor Swift announced Friday that she will cancel all her appearances and concerts for the rest of the year.
“I’m so sad I won’t be able to see you guys in concert this year, but I know this is the right decision,†she tweeted. “Please, please stay healthy and safe. I’ll see you on stage as soon as I can but right now what’s important is committing to this quarantine, for the sake of all of us.â€
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 2:23 PM EDT
Death rates in many states will likely peak after May 1, new model saysResearchers at the University of Texas at Austin released a new model that finds the number of covid-19 deaths in the country has not yet peaked and will likely not reach an apex until after May 1.
Using geolocation data from cellphones to determine the impact of social distancing within each state, the model predicts that only New York and Louisiana will be past their peak by Sunday with an 80 percent certainty. Other states (New Jersey, Michigan, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Nevada and Massachusetts, along with the District of Columbia) have an 80 percent chance of reaching their peak in April.
The new projection counters the often-cited University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which predicted that deaths already peaked on Monday. The model from the University of Texas findings are slightly more grim. It forecasts an 80 percent chance that deaths will peak by May 7.
The new model accounts for more uncertainty, according to one of the head researchers, James Scott.
“Our model stands on the shoulders of the IHME model, but it corrects critical statistical flaws that led the IHME model to make many projections that, in retrospect, have turned out to be far too optimistic,†he said in a UT-issued statement.
Lauren Ancel Meyers, one of the lead researchers, said in a news release that there is about a three- to four-week delay between when a person gets infected with the virus and when they are at risk for death. The new data suggests the benefits of social distancing are just now being seen, she said.
Meyers and her fellow researchers are sharing their findings with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 1:37 PM EDT
Lady Gaga calls head of WHO a ‘superstar’ ahead of Saturday’s star-studded fundraiserLady Gaga is curating a star-studded musical fundraiser for the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday evening.
The superstar virtually joined a daily WHO media briefing on Friday to promote the event and to express her support for WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Dr Tedros, you’re a superstar,†Lady Gaga said.
Tedros has been in a public dispute with President Trump after the United States cut funding to the United Nation’s health agency on Tuesday. WHO has been criticized for not challenging China’s reporting and lack of transparency around the pandemic.
Called “One World: Together at Home,†the Live Aid-style event will be broadcast live on television and online beginning at 8 p.m. It will include performances from the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, Jennifer Lopez and Lizzo, among others.
The concert aims to raise money for the U.N. Foundation’s Covid-19 Response Fund. Lady Gaga said Friday that so far it has raised over $50 million since launching 12 days earlier.
By Miriam Berger
April 17, 2020 at 1:24 PM EDT
Hospitalizations and ICU admissions down, but infection rate remains high in New YorkNew York’s covid-19-related hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions have declined, while infections seem to remain the same, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said in a news conference Friday.
“The number of new cases that walk in the [hospital] door, covid cases, is still about 2,000 per day, and that is still very high,†he said. “It’s hovered about the same rate for several weeks.â€
The rate of deaths caused by the virus is relatively flat, Cuomo said, with 630 people dying on Thursday. Nearly 15,000 New Yorkers have died from complications of the coronavirus.
Combating the virus will be an incremental process involving continuing medical treatment, controlling the rate of infection and strengthening the state’s health-care system. Trace testing will also be critical, Cuomo said, as he looks to reopen his state while facing a “terrible economic deficit.â€
The average number of new infections caused by each coronavirus carrier in New York is now 0.9, down from the previous average of 1.4, Cuomo said. In enacting reopening measures, authorities need to be mindful of not increasing the rate up to 1.2 new infections per carrier, which is a tipping point, he said. “We’re right up to that line of possible outbreak,†Cuomo said.
The governor will issue an executive order requiring all public and private labs in his state to work with the Department of Health to ensure that diagnostic testing will be prioritized, he said. Cuomo decried the need for testing materials that can come from China, which he said has created an international supply-chain issue.
“The federal government cannot wipe their hands of this,†he said. “We cannot do it without federal help. I’m willing to do what I can do and more. I don’t do China relations, and I don’t do international supply chains.â€
Cuomo and other governors have asked the federal government for $500 billion in recovery efforts, but he did not specify how much New York would receive.
During Cuomo’s news conference, President Trump tweeted a rebuke of the governor’s “complaining†after receiving previous federal help.
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 1:21 PM EDT
Trump, Cuomo exchange jabs over federal role in reopening of statesPresident Trump and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) sparred Friday over the federal role in reopening the economy, with Cuomo calling for more financial help from Washington for coronavirus testing and Trump telling him to spend less time complaining.
“Governor Cuomo should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’ Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking!†Trump said on Twitter. “We have given New York far more money, help and equipment than any other state. … Your numbers are not good. Less talk and more action!â€
Trump’s tweets came as Cuomo appeared at a new conference in Albany at which he said the Trump administration needs to provide states with more financial assistance so that they can reopen successfully. Cuomo is pushing for both more federal help on testing as well as direct aid to states hardest hit economically by the crisis.
“Don’t pass the buck without passing the bucks,†he said at his news conference.
In his rejoinder on Twitter, Trump ticked off federal help already extended to New York, including hospital beds and ventilators. The president also reiterated his view that testing should be a state responsibility.
Cuomo responded to the tweets in nearly real time, suggesting Trump should spend less time watching the New York briefings.
“If he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work,†Cuomo said.
By John Wagner
April 17, 2020 at 11:59 AM EDT
Hoyer accuses Trump of ‘abdication’ of job for lack of major federal funding for testingHouse Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) on Friday accused President Trump of “a shocking abdication†of his job for having issued guidelines for states to reopen the economy without a major federal investment in coronavirus testing.
“The only way to ensure that [workers and consumers] feel safe enough is to ramp up testing on a massive scale,†Hoyer said in a statement. “Instead, this Administration has failed to implement a comprehensive testing regime and continues to dodge responsibility to lead in this crisis, now saying that states must come up with their own way of producing the tens of millions of tests required. That is a shocking abdication of the President’s duty to the American people.â€
Hoyer’s comments came a day after Trump released federal guidelines for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools and other gathering places in states and local jurisdictions that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases and hospital loads. The president’s plan largely relies on the judgment of governors.
In his statement, Hoyer warned of the dangers of reopening the economy too quickly.
“All of us want to reopen our economy, but doing so prematurely will cause a resurgence in coronavirus transmissions that will place lives in danger and set back our recovery because consumers will not return to stores or restaurants and workers will not feel safe going back to their jobs,†he wrote.
By John Wagner
April 17, 2020 at 11:55 AM EDT
Despite early, aggressive measures, Peru is suffering one of Latin America’s largest outbreaksLIMA, Peru â€" Mayumi Matto ventures just twice a week from her coronavirus-induced confinement in the home she shares with 15 family members.
Matto, 28, joins the queue outside the market in Puente Piedra, a gritty suburb on the edge of the Peruvian capital, at 7 a.m. It’s a scene that has grown familiar around the world: Only those wearing masks are allowed to enter. Security guards enforce a one-out, one-in policy. Waiting customers are careful to stand apart from one another.
But once inside the market, everything changes.
“It’s packed,†Matto says. “It’s impossible to move around without bumping into people. Everyone is in a hurry to get in and out as quickly as possible, without getting infected. Security try telling people to keep their distance, but it’s no use.â€
Matto’s experience is typical in Peru, where many of the 31 million citizens buy much of their food in informal street markets that remain severely overcrowded and where the concept of personal space is among the most limited in the world. Those challenges help explain why the number of coronavirus cases reported in the Andean nation is soaring, despite an early and decisive response against the pandemic.
By Simeon Tegel
April 17, 2020 at 10:50 AM EDT
Johns Hopkins launches county-by-county map of U.S. infectionsAfter what one person behind the project called “a lot of sleepless nights†and an effort drawing from departments and programs across campus, Johns Hopkins University this week launched a new app tracking covid-19 cases across the United States on a county-by-county level.
The map is a complement to Johns Hopkins’s world map, a resource that has become critical for policymakers, public health officials and anyone else trying to make sense of the novel coronavirus’s spread.
“We saw this as an incredible opportunity to start to zoom in and really understand the impact covid-19 is having on a local level,†Beth Blauer, executive director of the university’s Centers for Civic Impact, said Tuesday during a webinar explaining the new tracker.
“You can look at the map and toggle between different views. So you’ve got the ability to look at the confirmed cases by population, the total death counts for each individual county, and the death rate,†she said.
The tracker is informed by data from the university’s ongoing global tracker, as well as information from the Red Cross, the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Besides information on the coronavirus, the new tracker also provides a snapshot of race and ethnicity breakdown for each county, as well as the county’s health-care infrastructure, including hospital bed capacity and the number of intensive care unit beds. The more comprehensive analysis provided by pairing these streams of data with the reported covid-19 cases could help predict the true impact of the virus’s spread, Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the university’s Center for Health Security, explained during the webinar.
“One of the challenges from the beginning has been getting access to data to help us to understand the case numbers that are being reported and to figure out where we may be headed based on these case numbers,†Nuzzo said. “But the raw case numbers alone are not enough for us to understand what’s really going on.â€
The U.S. map will be updated once a day. According to a university spokesperson, variances between the new Johns Hopkins tracker and data relayed by other databases may occur “due to differences in data sources, changes in how source data report out, as well as time lag between updates.â€
By Kyle Swenson
April 17, 2020 at 10:42 AM EDT
Pope Francis presents ‘plan for resurrection’ from pandemic“Will we adopt as an international community the necessary measures to stop the devastation of the environment, or will we continue to deny the evidence?†Pope Francis wrote in an article entitled “A Plan for Resurrection,†published Friday by the Spanish Catholic magazine Vida Nueva.
In the article, the leader of the Catholic Church echoed previous calls for world unity in caring for the planet and ending poverty and war, while providing a lesson in Christian teachings that he said should guide how to proceed from the pandemic.
The biblical story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection serves as a paradigm for how to fight this epidemic, as well as “other epidemics that beset us,†such as poverty, war and global indifference, with “the necessary antibodies of justice, charity and solidarity,†he wrote. “Let us not be afraid to live the alternative civilization of love.â€
In recent weeks, the 83-year-old pope has not made public appearances or held public Mass from his base in the Vatican as a part of social distancing efforts, though he has held in-person meetings and does not wear a mask, according to those who’ve met him. In previous statements, Pope Francis has similarly called for finding alternatives to combating global crises that disproportionately affect the poor, such as migration, climate change and, now, the coronavirus pandemic.
By Miriam Berger
April 17, 2020 at 10:37 AM EDT
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announces community testing sitesNew York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced multiple testing sites for the novel coronavirus as part of his plan to reopen the city.
“There is no way to get back to normal without a huge amount of testing,†he said in a Friday news conference, adding that help is still needed from the federal government. “We have been waiting a long time on that federal help, and it still hasn’t come. We’re taking matters into our hands.â€
Testing locations in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island will open on Friday, followed by other locations in Manhattan and Queens on Monday. There will be at least 2,400 tests performed at every site each week with an expected doubling, de Blasio said. The test sites will serve the hardest hit communities, which include New York residents who are older than 65, medical workers on the front lines of the virus and those with preexisting conditions. The mayor thanked citizens for being “absolute heroes at social distancing†and wearing face masks.
He also announced all nonessential events in May, such as the Brooklyn Half Marathon, will be canceled. Hospitalizations related to covid-19 ailments and people in intensive care units have declined citywide as of Wednesday, de Blasio said. The percentage of people who tested positive for the virus dropped from 55 percent to 46 percent for the same time frame, he said. Positive test results at public health labs increased from 78 percent to 82 percent, but the overall new data is promising, de Blasio said.
“This was a good day, a definite move in the right direction,†he said.
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 10:31 AM EDT
Veterans Affairs passes two milestones: 5,000 infections and 300 deathsThe Department of Veterans Affairs passed two grim milestones within its health system, eclipsing 5,000 coronavirus infections and 300 deaths of veterans at its hospitals, according to figures released Friday.
The crush of patients has often mirrored the civilian health-care system. VA recorded only two infections nationwide on March 12, but by April, deaths mounted by the dozens. About a third of all veteran hospital deaths have occurred at facilities in hard-hit New York and New Orleans, according to VA data.
Among people who have contracted the coronavirus, the death rate at VA hospitals is 6 percent, which is higher than the rate of about 4.3 percent for known cases in the overall U.S. population. That is probably due to the older population within VA, which is also mostly men â€" who have died at a higher rate than women.
The virus has also struck VA hospital workers. More than 1,600 have been infected, with 14 deaths, VA spokeswoman Christina Noel said Thursday.
VA touted its protection of employees, comparing an infection rate of less than 1 percent among its hospital administration staffers, Noel said, but it is unclear how many VA staffers who do not interact with patients are included in that rate.
That defense comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that an internal memo told hospitals to decide which VA hospital staffers should and should not receive N95 protective masks. As of April 11, the agency had a two-week supply of masks amid a national shortage, the Journal reported.
By Alex Horton
April 17, 2020 at 10:30 AM EDT
Sports world silenced by pandemic, Vegas turns to esports bettingBefore covid-19, casinos in Las Vegas would have laughed at the prospect of an esports-centric betting operation. But now, searching for alternative events amid the sports-less coronavirus pandemic, Las Vegas has warmed to the idea.
This week, a month after traditional sports across the country shut down due to the virus, the Nevada Gaming Control Board approved bets on four different esports series, adding to the slowly growing betting options for competitive gaming. Adding betting options is critically important to casinos in the current climate, given that their floors have been closed due to the virus, shuttering table games and forcing gambling to app and online formats.
This week, the Nevada GCB approved betting on some of the biggest esports leagues in the country. The League of Legends Championship Series in North America, the League of Legends European Championship and Overwatch League are now available for gambling in Las Vegas, as is the Call of Duty League, which was approved Thursday. While mainstream sports fans may not be familiar with those leagues, they’re probably more likely to hear about their upcoming competitions than some of the other live sporting events being considered by sportsbooks.
“In terms of what sports are left, there’s Russian table tennis and Japanese sumo wrestling,†said Joe Asher, chief executive of William Hill, a leading sportsbook. “We were talking about Nicaraguan baseball; there’s some soccer in Belarus.â€
Compared with the gambling jackpot that is March Madness, sumo wrestling and Belarusan soccer are couch change. Esports, with a steadily growing audience, particularly in the 18-to-34 demographic, offers an intriguing alternative.
But casinos are proceeding with caution, as match-fixing, once a serious issue for the integrity of such competitions, recently resurfaced during two League of Legends matches in China.
By Mitch Reames
April 17, 2020 at 10:13 AM EDT
Schumer says ‘key thing’ is missing from Trump’s reopening plan: TestingSenate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday credited President Trump with putting forward a reopening plan that is “a little more measured†than he has previously advocated but argued that it still has a crucial deficiency.
“There’s a key thing missing in all of this.… It’s called testing,†Schumer said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe†program. “If we don’t have a strong, adequate testing regime, we’re going to have real trouble.â€
Schumer’s comments came a day after Trump released federal guidelines for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools and other gathering places in states and local jurisdictions that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases and hospital loads.
Schumer used his MSNBC appearance to continue pressing for a Democratic proposal to add $30 billion in funding to bulk up coronavirus testing to emergency legislation that would replenish a loan fund to help small businesses respond to the pandemic.
“The testing regime is scattershot and totally inadequate for what’s needed to get the country back to work,†Schumer said. “Each state can’t come up with its own test.â€
Democrats also want to add funding for hospitals and state governments to the legislation, while Republicans have said those needs can be addressed later.
“We’ve had constructive talks,†Schumer said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t come to an agreement soon.â€
In a tweet later Friday morning, Trump blamed Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for not agreeing to GOP-backed legislation to replenish the small-business loan fund before it maxed out Thursday.
“Today people started losing their jobs because of Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, who should immediately come back to Washington and approve legislation to help families in America,†Trump wrote.
By John Wagner
April 17, 2020 at 10:12 AM EDT
Spain changes how it counts covid-19 casesMADRID â€" Spain’s Health Ministry on Friday changed the way it counts confirmed cases of covid-19 and the official death toll, pushing all regions to use the same criteria and provide more details to central authorities to avoid gaps or overlap in the categories.
“We have published the figures and are trying to correct the series because one of the regions has been offering two different sources of information, and in the past few days we had discrepancies between which of these two series to use,†explained Fernando Simon, head of Spain’s emergency health response. “The variance was small, it isn’t substantial, but some of the figures stand out.â€
Using the new method, authorities said the official death toll jumped to 585 new fatalities in 24 hours, with a total of 19,478 lives lost since the pandemic began. Under the previous method, the daily toll would have been 348 deaths, compared with the previous day’s 551 deaths.
Simon said Spain was revising its data from the start of the crisis “over the next few days.†He said there would be some “incoherence†in the coming days but that the “data had been consistent†until now.
Regions will now provide which diagnostic test was used and delineate hospitalizations or at-home care, asymptomatic and symptomatic confirmed cases, and other details not included previously.
With the new method of reporting, Spain posted 188,068 total confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 2.9 percent from the day before because of 5,252 fresh cases.
By Pamela Rolfe
April 17, 2020 at 10:05 AM EDT
Governors will have to consider face masks in reopening, surgeon general saysWearing masks to protect others is an action governors across the country will have to consider in their reopen effort, said U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams in a Friday interview with “Fox and Friends."
Masks help prevent asymptomatic spread of the novel coronavirus and show a sign of respect for knowledge of that fact, he said.
“This comes back to safety, and I’m so glad the president emphasized this yesterday,†he said. “This is not about the economy. This approach is about doing it in a safe way with the recognition that we can’t keep the economy closed forever.â€
On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said people in his virus-ravaged state will be required to wear masks in public when it’s not possible to be at least six feet from others.
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 10:04 AM EDT
China faces new censorship accusationsMore than three months after China reported the world’s first known coronavirus cases, Beijing’s initial handling of the outbreak is facing new scrutiny.
Chinese authorities said Friday that the coronavirus death toll in Wuhan â€" the initial epicenter of the outbreak â€" was almost 50 percent higher than previously confirmed. Even though local officials said the discrepancy was due to human error or patients dying at home who were not originally reflected in the statistics, the announcement came amid new concerns that Chinese officials deliberately misled the public regarding key facts.
The Human Rights Watch NGO had warned Thursday that there is a “tremendous danger that censorship is going to permit the virus to reactivate†in China, according to the organization’s executive director Kenneth Roth.
“We don’t know. There are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about,†he said.
“I think it is incumbent upon China to answer those questions and provide the information so that people can have clarity about exactly what happened,†Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told the Nine Network.
“We do want more transparency,†he said.
Trump also has accused the World Health Organization of having “pushed China’s misinformation about the virus.†He suspended payments to the agency and doubled down on criticism on Friday morning via Twitter.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday that according to the WHO, there is no evidence that the coronavirus was created in a lab. On Friday, the spokesman also rejected claims that the revised Wuhan death toll indicated a government coverup. Instead, he said, the update was the result of a standard verification effort.
By Rick Noack
April 17, 2020 at 9:27 AM EDT
Drug that’s causing cautious optimism ‘not a slam dunk,’ former FDA chief saysThere is guarded optimism about remdesivir, a drug that halts viral replication, following reports of early success with severely ill covid-19 patients in a study that has not been peer-reviewed.
But Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said Friday that while he welcomes early encouraging signs of its efficacy, it is not a silver bullet for the novel coronavirus even if it is later proved effective.
“It’s not a slam dunk by any means. I don’t think it’s a cure for the virus,†Gottlieb said on CNBC. “I don’t think this is going to be the one-drug answer. But it can change the contours of the disease and mitigate the worst outcomes for some patients.â€
The early signs come from a small study of just 125 infected patients at a Chicago hospital, part of a broader trial for the Gilead Science drug. Of those patients, 113 had severe complications, STAT News reported. Most of the patients have been discharged, although two people died, according to STAT News.
Remdesivir, if it is shown to be a valid treatment, would be most effective as early intervention to curb covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, from spreading in the body, and as an urgent use for patients with high-risk factors, Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb was an FDA commissioner in the Trump administration and is on the board of directors for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant.
By Alex Horton
April 17, 2020 at 9:26 AM EDT
Astronauts return from space to a whole new worldAstronauts who have been in space for months returned to Earth on Friday and were greeted by masked and gloved crews because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
American astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka landed in Kazakhstan after completing a 205-day mission, along with U.S. astronaut Andrew Morgan, an Army emergency physician who wrapped up 272 days in space.
The Earth they returned to is quite different from the one they left last summer, when barbecues and family reunions abounded.
Seeing this new world, where video chats have replaced physical interaction and lives have been claimed by the virus, is an unusual experience, Meir told reporters, according to the BBC.
“It’s quite surreal to see it unfolding on Earth below,†she told reporters during a recent video call from space, the BBC reported. “From here, Earth looks just as stunning as usual, so it’s hard to believe all of the changes that have taken place since we left.â€
The coronavirus has also changed how the space crew will get home and greet their loved ones.
Instead of using an airport to fly home, Meir and Morgan will leave Kazakhstan on a NASA plane because Kazakhstan’s state of emergency has closed down airports, the BBC reported.
Adjusting to life on Earth will involve a customized treatment along with new directions about socializing with family and friends. The new health precautions could have a different effect on the astronauts, who are used to spending lots of time alone, Meir told reporters before leaving the International Space Station.
“I think I will feel more isolated on Earth than here. We’re busy with amazing pursuits and tasks and don’t feel the isolation,†she said.
By Lateshia Beachum
April 17, 2020 at 9:21 AM EDT
These apes and monkeys escaped poaching and trafficking. Now they must battle a pandemic.Each day at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue in Cameroon begins at 5:30 a.m., when volunteers and staff wake and start washing fruits and vegetables. Soon, gates and latches clang as the primates are released from their protective night cages, and eight troops of chimps begin pant-hooting for their breakfast.
Electric fencing twice as tall as a human zigzags around the sanctuary’s 225 acres of the tropical Mbargue Forest, both to keep out hunters and wildlife traffickers and to keep in the sanctuary’s vulnerable animals â€" all orphaned when poachers killed their mothers or rescued from abusive owners who kept them as pets.
Taking care of these primates is daunting work, and margins are thin in a good year. Sanaga-Yong, like most of the 22 other facilities in a network known as the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, is sustained by international donations and the labor of visiting volunteers. But now the sites are facing a new existential threat: the worldwide spread of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The pandemic has already had a profound effect on zoos and wildlife refuges around the world. But facilities housing primates are a particular concern, scientists say, because of the animals’ susceptibility to human respiratory diseases, and because all great apes are endangered in the wild.
By Jason Bittel
April 17, 2020 at 8:50 AM EDT
Air travel down 95 percent in Los Angeles, biggest drop in LAX historyLos Angeles, home to the fourth busiest airport in the world, has seen 95 percent of its air travel stop as the global pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the aviation industry, Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) said.
The sharp decline in flights is the largest drop in the history of the Los Angeles International Airport, Garcetti said at a Thursday news conference. The previous record was 55 percent, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said, noting that it took a decade for travel to return to normal afterward.
“It gives you an idea of the scale and the scope of how devastating this is,†he said.
Airlines and airports have been among the hardest hit by coronavirus-related travel restrictions, forcing many to lay off or furlough countless employees.
On Thursday, Garcetti stressed that city officials are doing everything they can to support the hundreds of thousands of people who “depend on the economy of our airport.â€
Beyond rent reductions and deferrals, LAX has been slated to receive more than $323 million from the federal Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Garcetti said. He added that airlines and contractors will also receive $29 billion in federal funds, under the condition that they retain almost all their employees through the end of September.
“We cannot let our workforce bear the brunt of this emergency,†he said. “We have to help them.â€
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 8:46 AM EDT
‘Better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under,’ Michigan governor saysMichigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) vigorously defended her continuing stay-at-home order Friday after thousands of protesters converged on the capital, Lansing, and four northern Michigan sheriffs said they would not strictly enforce it.
“You know what? I can take it,†Whitmer said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.†“If it makes people feel better to take their frustrations out on me, that’s fine. All I ask is let’s not get overly political here. Let’s focus on the public health. … I know that there are a lot of businesses and people that are hurting right now. But the fact of the matter is it’s better to be six feet apart right now than six feet under.â€
During her appearance on ABC, Whitmer noted that the sheriffs were only four among 83 in the state. Whitmer stressed that she is the governor of a state with nearly 10 million people and more than 28,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Asked whether she could envision relaxing some social distancing restrictions by May 1, Whitmer said she hopes that is a possibility. But she said the situation is so fluid that it’s hard to predict what actions Michigan will take in a week, much less two weeks.
By John Wagner
April 17, 2020 at 8:43 AM EDT
Pro wrestling? Beaches? Golf? Guns? In coronavirus-closed America, it’s all essential somewhere.Florida made an exception for professional wrestling. South Carolina cut a break to sex shops, before it didn’t. And across the country, golf courses are more likely to be open than not.
Despite sweeping orders that mandate closures of all nonessential businesses and activities in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, the list of exemptions in most states is long, curious and controversial â€" a launchpad for endless debates over what really matters at a time when so much is being sacrificed.
With every category that is included, another set of jobs may be saved, another wave of economic dislocation avoided. But each addition also carries a threat: There may be so many exemptions that the overall strategy of keeping people apart is undermined and viral spread runs rampant.
By Griff Witte and Hannah Knowles
April 17, 2020 at 8:11 AM EDT
In National Army Day parade, Iran pays tribute to those fighting coronavirusBEIRUT â€" On this year’s National Army Day, Iran decided to stage a different kind of parade: Named “Defenders of the Homeland, Helpers of Health,†the celebration touted Iran’s services dedicated to combating the spread of the coronavirus and praised the efforts of health workers and the army in fighting the pandemic.
Floats drove around a training center, one carrying workers in full-body protective gear standing next to various hospital beds. Another blew a stream of disinfectant liquid behind it, according to footage broadcast by Iran’s state-funded Press TV. Rows of men in hooded fatigues and face masks carried backpack sanitizer sprayers.
Iran typically uses its National Army Day to boast of its weaponry and military prowess, complete with missiles, submarines and warplanes. But amid the pandemic, the country dedicated the day to those fighting covid-19, which has ravaged the heavily sanctioned country.
In a message disseminated on state media Friday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said doctors and nurses are the ones standing on the front lines of today’s battlefield.
“Our people should know that although this year is a hard one â€" and as I have said many times â€" we are fighting two viruses: sanctions and coronavirus,†Rouhani said, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency.
On Friday, Iran reported that the number of cases in the country has reached 79,494, with 1,499 new cases reported overnight, as well as 89 new deaths. Nearly 5,000 people have died of the virus in the country.
President Trump has reimposed sanctions on Iran, further crippling its economy in the pursuit of a “maximum pressure†policy to force Tehran to curb its nuclear and missile capabilities, as well as its regional activities.
By Sarah Dadouch
April 17, 2020 at 7:52 AM EDT
Puerto Rico, struggling with virus response, faces calls for more testingAs crowds descended on several state capitols to protest to stay-at-home orders and other restrictions, demonstrations in the United States’ largest territory are bucking the trend: They want their government to do more.
On Wednesday, dozens of people in San Juan, Puerto Rico, lined up in their cars outside a public television station to call for more testing â€" just one of several demonstrations this week pushing back on the island’s government.
As of earlier this week, Puerto Rico had conducted only about one test for every 392 people, according to El Nuevo DÃa newspaper, a per capita testing rate lower than that of any U.S. state and less than half the U.S. national average.
Puerto Rico initially implemented one of the earliest and boldest responses to the outbreak in the United States and its territories, with Gov. Wanda Vázquez instituting a nightly curfew and lockdown on March 15. The island’s already fragile health system was crippled by Hurricane Maria nearly three years ago, and fears were rampant that the virus could prove just as deadly.
Vázquez and a task force for the island have said that initial testing results seem to indicate that her strict social distancing measures were starting to slow the pace of infections.
But if the government’s response was effective, it has not come without accusations of corruption.
Earlier this month, federal agencies launched a probe into members of Vázquez’s administration, who allegedly tried to purchase $38 million in testing kits from a construction company. That firm has ties to her political party, but no record of manufacturing medical products.
Also on Wednesday, paramedics and EMTs staged a drive-by protest ending at the governor’s mansion in San Juan, demanding that they be covered in the territory’s economic relief package.
By Teo Armus
April 17, 2020 at 7:32 AM EDT
U.S. stocks surge after clinical trial fuels hopes for coronavirus drugGlobal stocks flashed green as investors seized on early reports that the antiviral medicine remdesivir was proving effective in a small clinical trial with severely ill covid-19 patients and on signs that the United States was moving to restart parts of the economy.
The three major U.S. indexes surged at Friday’s open, with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping roughly 600 points, positioning them for a second straight week of gains. The rally comes a day after dismal economic numbers showed the United States had erased all job gains of the past decade because of the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to force tens of millions of Americans to stay home and disrupt entire industries.
By Rachel Siegel
April 17, 2020 at 7:14 AM EDT
A Wyoming health-care worker took a covid-19 test and attended parties. Then, it came back positive.Mayor Steve Freel of Casper, Wyo., had just watched a Facebook video of a party that took place over the weekend showing partygoers “flat out thumbing their noses†at public health guidelines, he said. And worse: The party was attended by a health-care worker with a pending coronavirus test, as the Casper Star-Tribune earlier reported.
The health-care worker’s roommate, an employee at the Wyoming Behavioral Institute â€" home to one of the largest clusters of cases in Wyoming â€" tested positive for the virus last Friday. Because of evident exposure, the unidentified health-care worker then sought a covid-19 test that same day.
Despite a self-quarantine recommendation, the worker decided to go to a party on Friday night, Freel said. On Saturday, the worker went to another party. And finally, on Monday, the health-care worker got the test results back, Freel said: positive for the coronavirus.
By Meagan Flynn
April 17, 2020 at 7:10 AM EDT
Ten days into Tokyo’s half-hearted emergency, virus cases rise by new daily recordTOKYO â€" Ten days after Japan placed Tokyo under a state of emergency, the number of new coronavirus cases rose by more than 200 on Friday, as the government acknowledged that its measures have not gone far enough in reducing contacts between people.
“Without further cooperation, [the restrictions] will have to drag on for a long time, and we will not be able to stop the spread of infection â€" and that would prolong the economic slowdown,†said Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike. “For the coming weekend, please do not go out. [The state of emergency] has just begun. I hope people think it’s too early to get tired.â€
Facing a collapse of the health-care system in Tokyo, Koike has been consistently arguing for stronger measures to contain the virus, but she has been opposed by the central government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Critics say Abe is too concerned with trying to limit economic damage and has failed to take the decisive measures needed to bring the coronavirus under control.
Data culled from cellphones shows the number of people in normally crowded locations in Tokyo has fallen by about 45 to 70 percent compared to the pre-virus period, while rush-hour traffic on city metro lines has fallen by more than 60 percent.
Abe says social contacts need to fall by 70 to 80 percent during the state of emergency to bring the virus under control. On Thursday, he extended the state of emergency to cover all 47 of Japan’s prefectures, and on Friday he again appealed to people to refrain from going out.
Abe has promised to every resident of Japan a cash payout of 100,000 yen ($930), which he says will help support a “V-shaped†economic recovery.
But a similar cash payout after the 2008 financial crisis was widely seen as a failure because most people simply put the money into their savings.
By Simon Denyer
April 17, 2020 at 6:58 AM EDT
Pandemic upends years of planning for international adoptions and surrogacy birthsAndrea Hoffmann’s mad dash to America began shortly after 2 a.m. on March 12 in Munich, when her husband roused her from sleep and said, “We have to get on a plane now.â€
The Hoffmanns wanted to be in Maryland for the birth of their son to a surrogate who was due in late May. But Christian Hoffmann realized their plans had to be changed after watching President Trump on television as he announced travel restrictions on Europeans to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The measures, imposed with little advance notice, have interrupted plans for prospective new families around the world. As a result, many people overseas with surrogates in the United States are either stranded thousands of miles away or stuck in the United States, unable to bring their newborns home. And Americans who were about to fly abroad for international adoptions cannot enter the countries where children wait for them, often in orphanages.
By Carol Morello
April 17, 2020 at 6:56 AM EDT
After Fauci urged caution in reopening the economy, Fox News turned to Dr. Phil for a second opinionAfter Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, explained the White House’s new guidelines for states to slowly reopen their economies in a three-phase process, Fox News host Laura Ingraham sought another opinion later in the show.
She turned to Phil McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, television psychologist to the masses.
He acknowledged that the novel coronavirus is killing Americans â€" more than 33,000 as of early Friday â€" but also wondered why the economy would shut down over the pandemic but continues to function as people die of lung cancer and in car crashes and pool drownings.
By Katie Shepherd
April 17, 2020 at 6:54 AM EDT
Holocaust survivor dies of coronavirus 75 years after she was liberatedIf Margit Buchhalter Feldman had not lied about her age to the Nazis, the 15-year-old would have been murdered with her family at Auschwitz.
In fear of joining her parents and nearly 70 family members who died in the gas chambers, Feldman, a Hungarian teen known only to the Nazis by the “A23029†tattoo on her left arm, told them she was 18 and was assigned to forced labor. After she was liberated in 1945, Feldman, who could still picture “big heaps and mounds of dead bodies laying all around,†moved to the United States, where the Holocaust survivor made a life of her own in New Jersey. Years later, she eventually turned to teaching young people about the millions who died during the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Feldman, who dedicated her life to educating children about the Holocaust, died this week of complications from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced Thursday. The 90-year-old resident of Somerset, N.J., died Tuesday, one day before the 75th anniversary of her liberation.
By Timothy Bella
April 17, 2020 at 6:44 AM EDT
Leftover fabric from AIDS memorial quilt being used to make cloth masksDuring one viral outbreak, it was meant to remember those who died. Decades later, as another deadly virus overtakes the globe, it has taken on a new life: keeping people from getting sick.
The elderly organizers of the AIDS Memorial Quilt say they are repurposing fabric from the patchwork remembrance to create protective cloth masks for front-line workers facing the coronavirus pandemic.
“During the AIDS crisis, I could go and do something,†Gert McMullin, the project’s chief coordinator, told People magazine. “But now, I can’t. I’m not used to sitting around and not helping people.â€
The collaborative quilt, a decades-long effort that is now the world’s largest piece of folk art, was first conceived in the 1980s as a way to mourn the gay men dying of HIV/AIDS and raise awareness of the disease.
As that epidemic killed scores of people, the project grew, receiving more than 48,000 submissions from around the globe to commemorate dead loved ones, in cloth panels the same size as coffins. No one sewed more of those than 64-year-old McMullin.
In April, the quilt was due to return to its birthplace in San Francisco, but the coronavirus pandemic put those plans on hold. And the new outbreak started to give McMullin “a feeling of horror,†she told NBC News, “like: ‘Not again. I can’t go through this again.’â€
So she turned to her leftover fabric and her old sewing machine instead.
Alongside a dozen other volunteers, McMullin has made more than 800 protective masks for doctors and nurses in the San Francisco Bay area, as well as the clients of an Oakland nonprofit that works on housing and substance abuse.
“I never would’ve guessed I would go through two pandemics,†she told NBC, “and I’d be able to sew for both of them.â€
By Teo Armus
April 17, 2020 at 6:39 AM EDT
Coronavirus spreads to the Philippines’ overcrowded prison systemMANILA â€" The coronavirus pandemic has reached the Philippines’ notoriously overcrowded jails, after 18 inmates and personnel tested positive for the virus in the Metro Manila capital region.
The nine detainees and nine personnel in the Quezon City Jail have since been isolated, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology announced Friday.
Local news site Rappler reported that the jail houses more than 3,800 inmates â€" despite having a holding capacity of 800. Overcrowding is a common problem in the country’s prisons, with some of them 400 to 600 percent above capacity.
Criminal arrests have also spiked since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. His self-declared “war on drugs†has left thousands dead.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the spread of the novel coronavirus at the Quezon City Jail “shows why it’s so critical the government actively pursues early release of detainees charged with low-level, nonviolent offenses, as well as the sick and older inmates.â€
The Supreme Court convened online Friday to discuss a petition on the release of prisoners on humanitarian grounds amid the pandemic. The Department of Interior and Local Government said it will comply with the court’s directive.
Human Rights Watch has also called for the release of prisoners in other countries with similar conditions in the region, including Cambodia and Thailand.
By Regine Cabato
April 17, 2020 at 6:32 AM EDT
German hospitals consider cutting working hours, as tens of thousands of beds are empty despite crisisBERLIN â€" German hospitals are warning that the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a problematic surplus rather than a shortage of hospital beds, forcing some of them to consider cutting staff working hours amid a lack of patients.
Germany has almost 140,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus but has recorded far fewer deaths than nations with comparable tallies. So far, at least 4,093 people have died of the virus in Germany. By comparison, France has only a slightly higher number of infections but more than four times the number of deaths.
Whereas other countries in Europe saw their hospitals and intensive care units quickly overwhelmed by coronavirus patients, more extensive testing and other mitigation efforts reduced the burden on Germany’s health system early on. Germany already had one of the highest per capita numbers of ICU beds in Europe when the pandemic reached the country two months ago. Since then, health officials have offered hospitals compensation if they delay surgeries for non-life-threatening conditions. Additional ICU beds were created.
Germany’s hospital association estimates that 150,000 hospital beds are now empty out of a total of about a half-million in the country. There are at least 10,000 empty ICU beds out of 40,000 total beds.
While hospitals argue that government compensation has not been sufficient, health officials have stuck to the current approach, suggesting that the current surplus may provide a false sense of security. Only a slight increase in the current basic reproduction rate of the coronavirus, Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week, could mean that the German health system will reach its capacity by summer.
Germany’s hospital association does not consider an overload likely in the short run, however.
“If the current trend continues, we don’t expect any overload of patients within the next two or three weeks,†said Joachim Odenbach, a spokesman for the hospital association. “We should now carefully resume surgeries that were put on hold.â€
Luisa Beck and Loveday Morris contributed to this report.
By Rick Noack
April 17, 2020 at 5:56 AM EDT
99-year-old veteran raises $23 million for Britain’s health-care system by walking his gardenLONDON â€" It appears that Capt. Tom Moore is the hero Britain so desperately needs right now.
Last week, the 99-year-old veteran set himself a goal to raise money for Britain’s widely cherished but chronically underfunded National Health Service during the deadly coronavirus outbreak. He set up a fundraising page and decided to walk the 82-foot length of his garden back and forth 100 times, using his walker for support.
He split the journey into chunks of 10 laps with the idea of completing them before his 100th birthday on April 30. Initially, he wanted to raise 1,000 pounds ($1,250). But to his surprise, just 24 hours after Moore (or Captain Moore as he is fondly known on social media) started, he had raised the equivalent of $8,750.
By Tuesday, his donations had leaped to $1.25 million. On Thursday, as he finished his final lap â€" which was two weeks ahead of schedule and live-streamed by the BBC â€" that figure hit $15 million. The donations have not stopped. As of Friday morning, Moore had raised $23 million.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, more fondly known as Prince William and Catherine, sent the British veteran a message on Friday in which they called his efforts “incredible.â€
William, who is second in line to the British throne after his father, Prince Charles, called Moore a “one-man fundraising machine.â€
“I think it’s absolutely amazing that my super prince can say something like that,†a humble Moore responded after watching the royal couple’s comments.
By Jennifer Hassan
April 17, 2020 at 5:01 AM EDT
‘It was supposed to be such a beautiful year’: An oral history of the coronavirusIn just a matter of months, the coronavirus outbreak has changed the way the entire world lives, works, interacts, even grieves.
The Washington Post has collected stories of how this moment has changed us. This updating collection of voices offers a window into the impact of a crisis that has touched every corner of the globe.
By Washington Post Staff
April 17, 2020 at 4:42 AM EDT
Facebook to cancel planned events of 50 or more people through June 2021Facebook will cancel all planned events involving 50 or more people through June 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday.
The decision was included in a lengthy Facebook post shared to Zuckerberg’s personal page detailing how the social media giant plans to move forward as the United States continues working toward gradually reopening amid the ongoing pandemic.
Citing guidance from health experts, Zuckerberg wrote that large public gatherings would either be canceled or to turned into virtual events.
Additionally, most of Facebook’s employees will be required to keep working from home through at least the end of May, Zuckerberg wrote. He added that the company does not “expect to have everyone back in our offices for some time.â€
“We’re slowing our plans to return to the office in order to prioritize helping the rest of our community and local economy to get back up and running first,†he wrote.
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 4:31 AM EDT
Mexican workers call on U.S. companies to shut border factoriesWorkers at U.S.-owned plants along the border in Mexico erupted into protests this week, citing deaths they say were the result of the coronavirus and should result in their factories being shut down.
These “maquiladoras,†as they are known, form a key part of the cross-border trade with the United States, as they churn out heating controls, car seats and assorted technology for owners and consumers to the north.
In Ciudad Juárez, which sits across from El Paso, more than 250,000 people work in such factories, the Dallas Morning News reported, and 12 of the city’s 20 fatalities were linked to the maquiladoras.
Although many laborers have been furloughed, some plants in cities such as Juárez have remained open, as companies such as Honeywell say their production lines remain vital during the pandemic, according to Reuters.
Even after the Mexican government ordered nonessential industries to suspend operations, one U.S. manufacturing association has pushed for changes to Mexico’s list of “essential†industries so more factories can reopen, the news agency reported.
Protesters at plants across the Mexican border this week, however, have called for shutdowns with full pay. They pointed to poor health conditions inside the plants and employee deaths.
None of the companies directly attributed these fatalities to the virus, though demonstrators have insisted otherwise.
In Juárez, workers at a plant for the carmaker Lear died of “respiratory illnesses,†the company told Reuters, adding that it halted employee activity in the city by the start of April.
Across from San Diego in Tijuana, a worker at Honeywell plant died after failing a medical screening, being turned away from work and quarantining themselves, though the manufacturers said covid-19 had not been confirmed as the cause of death.
Honeywell told Reuters that it closed the factory two days for cleaning.
By Teo Armus
April 17, 2020 at 4:08 AM EDT
Colin Kaepernick starts covid-19 relief fund to help communities of color, donates $100,000 himselfFormer NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick launched a coronavirus relief fund Thursday aimed at helping communities of color, donating $100,000 of his own money to the effort.
“Black and brown communities are being disproportionately devastated by covid-19 because of hundreds of years of structural racism,†Kaepernick, 32, said in a video shared on Twitter. The fund is affiliated with Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, a youth initiative.
As The Washington Post reported earlier this month, the novel virus appears to be infecting and killing African Americans nationwide at an alarmingly high rate. Majority-black counties have three times the rate of infections and nearly six times the rate of deaths compared to counties that are made up of mostly white residents, according to The Post’s analysis of available data and census information.
In recent weeks, lawmakers, medical professionals and activists have called for the federal government to release detailed figures disclosing race and ethnicity data related to testing, patients and their health outcomes, The Post reported. This information, they say, is critical to ensuring equal access to testing and treatment, and developing proper policies to protect the vulnerable groups.
On Thursday, Kaepernick, a vocal civil rights activist, wrote on Instagram that his fund was not only created to provide monetary relief, but also to raise awareness of how the coronavirus is ravaging communities of color.
“We need each other now more than ever,†he wrote.
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 4:07 AM EDT
China cracks down on shoddy mask manufacturing amid criticism of defective productsChinese authorities are cracking down on fraudulent activity involving face masks, arresting dozens of people for hoarding materials and driving up prices, and closing down a factory accused of making substandard masks.
China is a key producer of surgical masks and the advanced N95 masks used by medical workers, but countries that have bought Chinese masks and test kits, including the Netherlands and Spain, have rejected tens of thousands of them as defective.
A total of 42 people were arrested for criminal activities involving the fraudulent production and sale of melt-blown fabric, the synthetic polymer material used to filter out particles. Melt-blown fabric is in short supply globally because of skyrocketing demand for masks and the difficulty of producing the nonwoven fabric.
China’s Ministry of Public Security arrested the people in Guangdong and three other provinces for hoarding and trying to drive up prices, seizing material worth almost $5 million, the ministry said in a statement Friday.
“The public security organs will always maintain a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to crimes involving protective materials related to the epidemic,†an unnamed ministry official said.
Separately, Jiangsu provincial officials shut down factories producing melt-blown fabric in the city of Yangzhong after reports they were producing inferior-quality masks for export. The city had seen a sudden proliferation of melt-blown fabric producers as prices for the material skyrocketed. The wholesale price of melt-blown fabric has increased from $2,260 to as much as $97,500 per ton in less than six months, according to the Yicai financial news website.
The Commerce Ministry also revoked the licenses of two exporters of personal protective equipment that it said were tarnishing the image of “Made in China.†One of the companies, Shenzhen-based AIPO, was producing earphones and microphones until it switched to producing face masks, disinfectant and protective suits in February. The other, Beijing-based Tus-Digital Group, had been a blockchain tech firm.
A total of 3,517 people were arrested for epidemic-related offenses, according to the Supreme People’s Procurate, China’s highest prosecutorial agency.
By Anna Fifield
April 17, 2020 at 4:01 AM EDT
Here are the drugs that could treat coronavirus. But don’t expect a silver bullet.The journey of EIDD-2801, from laboratory to the mouth of a human, unfolded with head-snapping speed.
On March 23, a division of Emory University in Atlanta licensed the experimental drug to a Miami company owned by a wealthy hedge-fund manager and his wife. Just three weeks later, a pill was given to a person for the first time in a test of its safety, in Britain.
It marked the beginning of an accelerated testing regimen that will determine whether EIDD-2801 will emerge as a true weapon against SARS-CoV-2 â€" or wind up as one of many hopeful bids in a field of long-shot treatments. If it works, the pill could be given to people as soon as they show symptoms of covid-19, Wayne Holman, the founder of privately held Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said in an interview. Holman has deep experience investing in drug companies and set up Ridgeback Bio with his wife, Wendy, in 2015.
By Christopher Rowland
April 17, 2020 at 3:54 AM EDT
Video of crowd applauding health workers on London’s Westminster Bridge sparks furyLONDON â€" At 8 p.m. each Thursday in Britain, people take to their front gardens, porches and windows to salute the health-care workers saving lives during the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Cars honk their horns, emergency vehicles flash their lights, and neighbors bang saucepans in the streets.
The #ClapForCarers movement is a unifying act intended to show Britons’ support for the National Health Service, which has struggled for years from chronic underfunding. It is a brief moment during the lockdown that brings a socially distanced country together in gratitude.
The government’s message? “Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.â€
But this week, a video shared from London’s Westminster Bridge sparked fury on Twitter, as it appeared that many of those clapping were not adhering to the lockdown rules, which had just been extended for an additional three weeks.
Viewed more than 2.1 million times on Twitter, the video prompted many Britons to share their disbelief that people, including police officers, were congregating in close proximity.
Radio presenter Matthew Stadlen described it as “absolutely bizarre.†Another comment read, “Clapping for carers in a large crowd so they’ll have even more work to do.â€
At least 27 NHS workers have lost their lives to the disease so far, intensifying calls for better protection for those on the front lines. Health-care workers have frequently taken to social media to urge the public to stay home during the crisis, which has claimed 13,729 lives in the United Kingdom.
By Jennifer Hassan
April 17, 2020 at 3:29 AM EDT
How the coronavirus has unleashed economic havoc in MichiganCharles Johnson was only supposed to be stuck home for about a week. His manufacturing plant, which makes aluminum parts for Ford pickup trucks, shut its doors in March, like many others in Michigan, to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus.
A week lapsed into a month, after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) closed most businesses statewide. Out of a job for the foreseeable future, and running out of cash, the 46-year-old Johnson joined the ranks of more than 1 million Michigan workers seeking help in a state that’s faced immense economic hardship amid a deadly pandemic.
“Almost everybody I know is out of work, or working only a couple of hours a week,†Johnson said.
By Tony Romm
April 17, 2020 at 3:08 AM EDT
Poland looks to tighten abortion laws, drawing protestsPolish lawmakers are debating restrictive abortion measures this week, as critics say the country’s antiabortion advocates are taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to push their legislative agenda.
The deeply Catholic country already boasts some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe, allowing the practice in only three cases: rape and incest; danger to the mother; or severe damage to the fetus, Deutsche Welle reported.
Yet draft laws considered this week would strike out the third exception, which makes up the vast majority of abortions in Poland. Although a similar piece of legislation had been proposed in 2018, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party ultimately bowed to widespread protests against it.
Two years later, however, leaders told the Associated Press the legislature is fulfilling its democratic mandate by looking at the law, a citizens’ initiative, even as it has banned gatherings of more than 5 people amid the outbreak.
Activists on the other side of the debate have accused them of trying to use the lockdown to further their socially repressive agenda, including another bill that would criminalize sex education in schools and equate homosexuality with pedophilia.
Despite fines designed to enforce social distancing, demonstrations broke out across the country earlier this week, as people protested while biking and waiting in lines at grocery stores or from cars and their balconies.
President Andrzej Duda has indicated he would support the bill, according to CNN, though it remains unclear whether the ruling party to which he belongs will do the same. Law and Justice has been caught between its loyalty to the socially conservative Catholic Church and secular citizens in favor of greater liberalization.
By Teo Armus
April 17, 2020 at 2:58 AM EDT
Australians should get used to social distancing ‘for the foreseeable future,’ prime minister saysAustralians should expect to continue social distancing for up to a year, even as other coronavirus-restrictions may be lifted, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.
“Social distancing is something we should get very used to for the foreseeable future,†Morrison said in an interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell. “It could be a year, I’m not speculating about that.â€
Morrison’s comments come one day after he announced that actions aimed at stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus would remain in place for a minimum of four more weeks, pending review. At that point, Morrison said the restrictions could be lifted if there had been improvements in testing and contact tracing, among other requirements.
Such measures have so far spared the country of nearly 25 million from seeing high numbers of coronavirus infections. As of Friday, Australia had roughly 6,500 reported cases of coronavirus and 66 deaths.
When asked Friday about whether social distancing would still be encouraged despite other aspects of public life returning to normal, Morrison said he anticipated the practice to continue “until there’s a vaccine.â€
“Certainly while the virus is prevalent across the world, that should be a natural instinct for us,†Morrison said.
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 2:36 AM EDT
Analysis: Trump’s pandemic response underscores the crisis in global politicsThere are understandable reasons for President Trump’s anger with the World Health Organization. The Geneva-based U.N. body has struggled to combat the coronavirus pandemic and, as my colleagues have reported, gave too much credence to China’s initial messaging around the outbreak. The WHO’s seeming acquiescence in its dealings with Beijing stoked the ire of not just Trump supporters in the United States, but critics elsewhere. Japan’s deputy prime minister recently called the WHO the “China Health Organization.â€
But Trump’s dramatic declaration this week that he would halt critical funding to the WHO in the middle of the pandemic is proving unpopular. It puts him at odds with his own administration’s officials in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Department â€" major agencies that recognize the importance of supporting and influencing the WHO in a time of shared crisis. And it underscores, yet again, Trump’s penchant for punishing or weakening multilateral, international institutions, even when it’s unclear what the United States gains from such disruption.
By Ishaan Tharoor
April 17, 2020 at 2:18 AM EDT
U.S. gives nearly $5 million to Palestinians to fight coronavirusBEIRUT â€" The United States is donating about $5 million to Palestinian hospitals and households in an effort to combat the novel coronavirus, as part of a $508 million commitment in aid to help various countries deal with the pandemic, the U.S. State Department announced Thursday.
“I’m very pleased the USA is providing $5M for Palestinian hospitals and households to meet immediate, life-saving needs in combating COVID-19,†David M. Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, announced late Thursday via Twitter. “The USA, as the world’s top humanitarian aid donor, is committed to assisting the Palestinian people, & others worldwide, in this crisis.â€
The donation, which will come from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the form of international disaster assistance, comes on the heels of the United States cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians since 2018.
In an effort to pressure Palestinians to negotiate the Trump-sponsored peace plan, which was unveiled in January, the Trump administration has cut funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which funds schools, health care and food for impoverished Palestinians, as well as slashing other programs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
The donation package by the State Department and USAID also designated aid disbursements to other countries in the region. War-torn Syria will receive nearly $18 million; Lebanon, struggling with an acute economic crisis and large numbers of Syrian refugees, will receive $13.3 million. Afghanistan will also receive $18 million, while Iraq is set to receive the second-largest donation worldwide, set at over $25.6 million.
By Sarah Dadouch
April 17, 2020 at 1:45 AM EDT
San Diego doctor charged with peddling false coronavirus ‘miracle cure’ that included hydroxychloroquine, prosecutors sayThe email advertisements from Skinny Beach Med Spa in San Diego started flooding inboxes late last month. Only instead of hawking beauty-related services, the promotions allegedly proffered a false “miracle cure†for the novel coronavirus, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
In the latest case of alleged coronavirus-related fraud, Jennings Ryan Staley, a licensed physician and the spa’s operator, was charged Thursday with mail fraud after authorities say he attempted to sell “covid-19 treatment packs,†claiming that the “concierge medicine experience†could both cure those with the virus and ensure immunity from infection for at least six weeks.
Customers willing to shell out $3,995 would receive enough medication for a family of four, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of California. Authorities said the packs included hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, a combination of medicine that has been touted by President Trump as a potential treatment, among other drugs. So far there is no scientifically proven treatment for coronavirus.
“We will not tolerate covid-19 fraudsters who try to profit and take advantage of the pandemic fear to cheat, steal and harm others,†U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer Jr. said in the statement. “Rest assured: those who engage in this despicable conduct will find themselves in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors.â€
The FBI began investigating Staley, 44, after receiving a tip about the treatment packs and installed an undercover agent to pose as a potential buyer, the statement said.
In a recorded phone call with the agent, Staley touted the medicine as a “magic bullet,†insisting that it would cure covid-19 “100 percent,†according to prosecutors.
“It’s preventative and curative. It’s hard to believe, it’s almost too good to be true,†Staley allegedly told the agent. “But it’s a remarkable clinical phenomenon.â€
Staley, who later allegedly denied making such statements, is also accused of smuggling hydroxychloroquine from China.
The charge against Staley comes just days after the FBI issued a warning to the public about health-care fraud schemes emerging amid the ongoing pandemic.
An attorney representing Staley did not respond to a request for comment. The physician faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Friday afternoon.
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 1:13 AM EDT
Coronavirus advice from those who have endured social distancing in the extremeDon’t count the days. Tallying them, like etches on a prison wall, will only serve as a reminder of how interminable the coronavirus quarantine is, how insufferably abnormal.
“I have no idea how many days I’ve been in quarantine. None,†said Scott Kelly, the former NASA astronaut who spent 340 days in space, the record for the longest single spaceflight. “I don’t think about it. I just think this is my reality. This is my mission. And it will some day be over.â€
Astronauts have a lot to teach us about how to survive the great covid-19 lockdown of 2020. So do explorers and scientists. And the researchers who study them say their experiences â€" confined in a spacecraft in orbit, a ship at sea or an outpost in Antarctica â€" can shed light on how we can best navigate an unsettling time that in its darkest moments can feel like an unjust incarceration.
By Christian Davenport
April 17, 2020 at 12:50 AM EDT
As testing outcry mounts, Trump cedes to states in announcing guidelines for slow reopeningPresident Trump released federal guidelines Thursday night for a slow and staggered return to normal in places with minimal cases of the novel coronavirus, moving to try to resume economic activity even amid an outcry from political and health leaders about the nation’s testing capacity.
Despite Trump’s desire for a May 1 reopening, his plan does not contain a date for implementation and is a vague set of recommendations for a three-phased reopening of businesses, schools and other gathering places in jurisdictions that satisfy broad criteria on symptoms, cases and hospital loads.
“America wants to be open and Americans want to be open,†Trump said.
By Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey and Yasmeen Abutaleb
April 17, 2020 at 12:34 AM EDT
Wuhan’s death toll was 50 percent higher than previously reported, Chinese authorities sayChina has revised up the number of people who died from the coronavirus in Wuhan by 50 percent, saying Friday that the death toll at the epicenter of the pandemic now stands at 3,869.
The figure was previously 2,579, a number that many analysts and ordinary citizens said appeared far too low. U.S. intelligence agencies had also reportedly concluded that China’s official numbers are much lower than reality.
The Wuhan municipal headquarters for the novel coronavirus disease epidemic prevention and control added 1,290 to the death toll on Friday â€" at the same time attention was focused on China’s much-anticipated economic statistics, which showed that growth contracted by a whopping 6.8 percent in the first quarter.
The agency said the discrepancy in Wuhan’s fatality figures was the result of many patients dying at home in the early stages of the epidemic rather than being treated in hospitals, so their deaths were not included in medical figures.
For those who died in hospitals, medical staff were preoccupied with treating patients, “resulting in belated, missed and mistaken reporting,†according to a statement from the agency. There were repetitions, mistakes and omissions in the reporting of deaths during the height of the outbreak in Wuhan, it said.
“Life and people are what matter most,†the statement concluded. “Every life lost in the epidemic is not only a loss to their family but also a grief for the city. Our sincere condolences go to the families of those who deceased in the covid-19 epidemic, and we express deep sorrow to the compatriots and medical workers who lost their lives in the epidemic.â€
By Anna Fifield
April 17, 2020 at 12:28 AM EDT
Pandemic delivers crushing blow to China’s economyHONG KONG â€" The coronavirus pandemic is sending China’s economy, long the world’s growth engine, into a tail spin.
Gross domestic product fell at an annual rate of 6.8 percent in the first quarter, the first contraction since the country began releasing the figures in 1992, official data showed Friday. That’s a dramatic reversal for the world’s second-largest economy, which had been slowing in recent years but had still achieved growth rates of around 6 percent or more.
China’s leaders locked down swaths of the country in January to prevent the spread of infection, weeks after the coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan.
As authorities fought back the pandemic in China, the ruling Communist Party has pressed to get business gradually returning to normal without unleashing a second wave of infections. That’s proving a challenge. Beijing has also grown concerned as imported cases trickle in from abroad, notably among Chinese nationals returning from Russia.
Businesses that have resumed operations have often faced higher costs associated with hygiene measures and supply-chain disruptions. And with export markets in the United States and Europe facing a severe downturn, China’s policymakers face an uphill battle to right the ship.
“The scale and breadth of China’s economic contraction are staggering, and its ramifications for global growth are already becoming apparent,†Eswar Prasad, professor of economics at Cornell University and former head of the China division at the International Monetary Fund, said in an email. “China’s economic collapse is a bellwether of what the data for other major economies will reveal in the coming weeks.â€
Unlike after the global financial crisis, there is little prospect of China driving a revival of global growth, Prasad added.
Asian markets had traded higher Friday and were little moved after China’s GDP figures. Benchmark indexes in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia were each about 2 percent higher, while U.S. stock futures were up 3 percent.
By David Crawshaw and Anna Fifield
April 17, 2020 at 12:27 AM EDT
New Zealand’s new coronavirus cases drop to single digits amid nationwide lockdownAfter several weeks under a strict nationwide lockdown, New Zealand’s number of new coronavirus cases fell to single digits over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday.
The country reported eight new cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, two confirmed and six probable, down from 15 the previous day, Caroline McElnay, director of public health, said at a news conference. New Zealand now has a total of 1,409 cases.
“We all need to continue to play our part to contribute to the elimination of this virus from New Zealand by staying home, staying in your bubble, breaking the chain of transmission and saving lives,†McElnay said.
New Zealand’s “elimination†approach to fighting the outbreak has largely stopped the virus from spreading among its population of nearly 5 million, but is expected to have a crushing impact on the country’s economy. Leaders plan to announce on April 20 whether New Zealand can begin easing out of lockdown or if the restrictive measures will continue.
On Friday, McElnay reported two new coronavirus-related deaths, both involving elderly patients in their 80s and 90s, bringing the country’s death toll to 11. But she noted that the number of cases of people who have recovered from the virus increased by 46 from the day before.
McElnay also announced that researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand have received funding to co-lead three scientific trials aimed at assessing potential therapeutic agents to fight covid-19. Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that has recently been touted by President Trump, is among the therapies that will be studied, she said.
By Allyson Chiu
April 17, 2020 at 12:27 AM EDT
China reports 26 new coronavirus cases as number of imported and domestic infections dropsChina reported 26 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the National Health Commission said Friday, a drop from the previous day as border closures and restrictions on international travel continue.
After tallying 46 new cases for two days in a row, the country saw decreases in both imported cases and locally transmitted infections on Thursday and reported no new deaths.
The number of cases linked to people who have been abroad recently was cut by more than half, with 15 new cases on Thursday compared to 34 from a day earlier. Domestic cases also went down slightly, dropping from 12 to 11, health officials said.
Meanwhile, asymptomatic cases continue to rise. The country tracks those cases separately and does not include them in its count of confirmed cases. On Thursday, there were 66 new asymptomatic cases, an increase from 64 reported a day earlier.
By Allyson Chiu
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