- U.S.Yahoo News
Birx warns of coming coronavirus hot spots across the U.S.
Louisiana is poised to become the next epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, White House officials said Thursday, citing new data that shows that 26 percent of the tests for COVID-19 in that state in recent days have come back positive. The New York area remains a “very clear and important hot zone,” Dr. Deborah Birx said at Thursday's briefing of the White House coronavirus task force as she revealed testing statistics on specific states. “What we're seeing finally is testing improving,” said Birx, a renowned veteran of the HIV/AIDS fight who is now serving as the response coordinator for the coronavirus task force.
- U.S.Yahoo News
Coronavirus poses special risk to millions of Americans with diabetes
As the worsening coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, millions of Americans living with diabetes face heightened risks from COVID-19. Around 30 million Americans have diabetes, mostly of the type II (previously called “adult-onset”) variety. A quarter of U.S. adults with diabetes are over 65, an age that has been shown to delineate increased COVID-19 mortality rates.
U.S.AFPPolitics aside, US relies on China supplies to fight virus
US politicians have voiced fury over Beijing's handling of the coronavirus crisis but they face a harsh truth -- the United States desperately needs China's supplies. China before the crisis produced nearly half of the face masks imported into the United States -- which in normal times cost less than a dollar but have disappeared from shelves amid growing calls for ordinary Americans wear them when outside. As China appears to have contained its own outbreak of SARS-CoV-1, which has infected more than one million people worldwide since first emerging late last year in Wuhan, it is now the first resort for protective gear sought across the world.
- U.S.INSIDER
A California ER nurse told her family that if she gets COVID-19 she doesn't want a ventilator and to give it to someone else who needs it more
An emergency room nurse told Insider she wouldn't take a ventilator if she were to be infected with coronavirus and to save it for others who may need it more. An emergency room nurse working in Southern California told Insider, the pandemic had forced her to have some difficult conversations with her family. Paige, who asked to conceal her last name said while she's found it too difficult to have the conversation with her 86-year-old father, she's discussed how she wants her family to deal with her death if she were to be infected and die from the coronavirus with her sisters.
- WorldThe Telegraph
Coronavirus: Nearly 1,500 Americans killed in 24 hours, the worst single-day death surge in the world
The United States recorded nearly 1,500 deaths from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the worst 24-hour death toll globally since the pandemic began. According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, 1,480 deaths were counted between Thursday morning and Friday morning, and the total number of people who have died since the start of the pandemic in the US is now 7,406. It comes as Donald Trump advised all Americans to wear masks in public to protect against the virus over fears that the illness that has infected more than one million people worldwide may be spreading by normal breathing.
- WorldNBC News
Israel locks down ultra-Orthodox city hit hard by coronavirus
Israeli police on Friday have surrounded and established roadblocks around an ultra-Orthodox Jewish city that has become a coronavirus hotspot. Police officers established roadblocks to restrict the movement in and out of Bnei Brak, where a small number of the ultra-Orthodox residents' apparent failure to comply with government social distancing requirements has prompted a dangerously high rate of contagion. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that if the ministry of health deemed it necessary the same restrictions could be placed on other locations within Israel.
- EntertainmentBBC
Coronavirus: 'Tiger King' star now in virus isolation, says husband
Joe "Exotic" Maldonado-Passage - the star of Netflix hit Tiger King - has been placed in coronavirus isolation in a Texas prison, his husband says. Maldonado-Passage had recently been transferred from Oklahoma's Grady County Jail to the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, US media report. "We speak like three to five times every day, but since he's been moved to this new facility, they are putting him on a Covid-19 isolation because of the previous jail he was at, there were cases," Mr Passage, 24, told US entertainment reporter Andy Cohen.
- LifestyleArchitectural Digest
27 Best Home Office Decor Ideas to Keep You in the Zone
Work from home and keep your sanity with these decor ideas that will help Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
- U.S.Reuters
Dismissed U.S. carrier captain gets hero's ovation from crew
The captain of a U.S. aircraft carrier relieved of his command after seeking stronger measures in response to a coronavirus outbreak aboard his ship was given a hero's ovation by his crew when he left the vessel, video posted on Twitter showed. The removal of Crozier, first reported by Reuters, was announced by acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who said the captain of the nuclear-powered vessel of 5,000 crew members had exercised poor judgment in the way he "broadly" distributed a letter to superiors.
- WorldThe Guardian
How coronavirus has halted Central American migration to the US
Border closures and strict lockdowns prompted by the Covid-19 crisis have disrupted the migrant trail through Central America and Mexico, forcing some would-be migrants to postpone their journeys – and stopping many others in their tracks. The result has been a deterrent more effective than any wall Donald Trump could build. Activists across the region have reported a steep decline in the number of migrants coming from Central America since the restrictions were implemented.
SportsYahoo News VideoCDC warned of a coming pandemic two years ago
Two years ago, some of the nation's top public health officials gathered in an auditorium at Emory University in Atlanta to commemorate the 1918 influenza pandemic — also known as “the Spanish flu” — which had killed as many as 40 million people as it swept the globe.
- WorldBusiness Insider
China declared whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang a 'martyr' following a local campaign to silence him for speaking out about the coronavirus
An investigation by the Chinese Communist Party found on March 19 that the actions of law enforcement in Wuhan was "irregular" and "improper." "Martyr" is the highest honor the Communist Party of China can bestow on a citizen killed working to serve the country. The country will honor him with three minutes of silence on Saturday.
- U.S.The Daily Beast
Robert F. Kennedy’s Granddaughter and Her 8-Year-Old Son Feared Drowned After Canoe Accident
The search for a granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and her 8-year-old son who went missing after they took a canoe out into rough waters on Chesapeake Bay turned into a recovery mission late Friday, a family member announced. Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her son, Gideon, rowed the canoe out around 4 p.m. on Thursday to fetch a ball that had been kicked into the water by children playing in their yard, Maeve's husband, David McKean, told The Washington Post. An overturned canoe matching the description of the one that went missing was recovered, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources police said.
BusinessAFPOil rockets as Trump signals end to price war
Oil prices rocketed Thursday, posting the largeset percent increase ever, after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Saudi Arabia planned to end their price war by slashing output. But the initial surge cooled after Russia denied it had spoken with Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of crude. After Trump tweeted that Saudi and Russia could slash production by up to 15 million barrels, Brent hit $36.29 a barrel, up almost 46 percent, and West Texas Intermediate soared around 35 percent to $27.39.
- HealthThe New York Times
Some Coronavirus Patients Show Signs of Brain Ailments
Neurologists around the world say that a small subset of patients with COVID-19 are developing serious impairments of the brain. Although fever, cough and difficulty breathing are the typical hallmarks of infection with the new coronavirus, some patients exhibit altered mental status, or encephalopathy, a catchall term for brain disease or dysfunction that can have many underlying causes, as well as other serious conditions. The patient, who had chronic lung disease and Parkinson's, was flailing his arms and legs in jerky movements, and appeared to be having a seizure.
- U.S.Bloomberg
NRA Sues New York State Governor Over Closure of Gun Stores
Cuomo's March 20 executive order that included firearms retailers as non-essential businesses which must close is a “pointless and arbitrary attack on the constitutional rights of New York citizens and residents,” the NRA said in a complaint filed late Thursday in Syracuse, New York. New York ordered most businesses to close to prevent the spread of the virus, but deemed grocery stores, liquor stores, pharmacies and restaurants that do take-out as essential and allowed them to remain open. New York City is the center of the outbreak in the U.S., accounting for more than 1,300 of the 5,700 deaths in the country.
- U.S.NBC News
Students who canceled ill-fated spring break trip say they aren't getting refunds
Parents of students who canceled a spring break trip to Mexico say the sponsoring company is not refunding their money and had reassured them beforehand that their children would be safe from the coronavirus. Yet 44 of the 70 young adults who took the trip returned to the U.S. with COVID-19, the disease associated with the virus, according to the University of Texas at Austin. The group traveled on a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas about two weeks ago with JusCollege, a company based in Nevada that plans all-inclusive spring break trips.
- WorldLA Times
Attempts for Middle East ceasefires amid the coronavirus crisis have not stopped the fighting
With governments worldwide increasing health measures to keep the spread of the deadly coronavirus at bay, one might think there would be virtually no time for waging war. Despite calls for a global ceasefire — “It's time to put armed conflict on lockdown,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement in March — regional conflicts appear to be immune to the coronavirus even as more than 4,000 have died across the Middle East and almost 90,000 people have confirmed cases. In Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as authorities have shut down businesses and imposed curfews, battles between the belligerents have persisted.
- WorldThe Guardian
Mexico murder rate reaches new high as violence rages amid Covid-19 spread
Photograph: Sergio Maldonado/Reuters Mexico s homicide rate raced to a new record in March, as violence raged even as Covid-19 spread across the country and authorities urged the population to stay home and practise social distancing. Mexico registered 2,585 homicides in March – the highest monthly figure since records began in 1997 – putting 2020 on track to break last year's record total for murders. The surge in killings comes as federal and state officials put resources into containing the Covid-19 crisis and confront the prospect of an already sluggish economy falling even further – potentially deepening the misery for the more than 40% of the population living in poverty.
- WorldReuters
Thailand suspends incoming passenger flights to fight coronavirus
Thailand will temporarily ban all passenger flights from landing in the country to curb the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the country's aviation agency said on Friday. The ban on incoming flights will come into effect on Saturday morning and run until the end of Monday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand said in an order published late on Friday. Anyone arriving on a flight that took off before the order came into effect will need to be quarantined for 14 days upon arrival in Thailand, the order said.
- U.S.Business Insider
The US Army warned 2 months ago that the coronavirus could kill as many as 150,000 Americans
Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images The US Army assessed in February that the coronavirus could kill as many as 150,000 Americans, the Daily Beast reported Thursday, citing an unclassified briefing document. The "black swan" or worst-case scenario assessment has become nearly the best-case scenario for the US as the White House warns that the virus may kill 100,000 to 240,000 Americans. The number of coronavirus cases in the US has already topped 200,000, and more than 5,000 people have died.
- WorldNational Review
The Trail Leading Back to the Wuhan Labs
It is understandable that many would be wary of the notion that the origin of the coronavirus could be discovered by some documentary filmmaker who used to live in China. Matthew Tye, who creates YouTube videos, contends he has identified the source of the coronavirus — and a great deal of the information that he presents, obtained from public records posted on the Internet, checks out. The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China indeed posted a job opening on November 18, 2019, “asking for scientists to come research the relationship between the coronavirus and bats.”
WorldAFPRights groups lament latest Taiwan execution
Rights activists on Friday condemned Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's government for executing a convicted murderer, saying the continued use of capital punishment undermined the island's progressive reputation. Death row inmate Weng Jen-hsien, found guilty last year of setting a fire that killed his parents and four relatives in 2016, was executed by a firing squad on Wednesday, the justice ministry said. Weng, 53, was the second man to be executed since Tsai came to power in 2016 despite a pledge to eventually abolish the death penalty.
PoliticsYahoo News VideoMedical stockpile seized from alleged hoarder to be distributed
U.S. officials have seized a stockpile of personal protective equipment from an alleged hoarder.
- WorldBloomberg
France Has Deadliest Virus Day as Infection Rate Slows in Spain
France reported its deadliest day from the coronavirus amid tentative signs that the pandemic may be easing in Spain and Italy. The health ministry in Paris reported 588 hospital deaths, the most yet, bringing the figure to 5,091 since the beginning of the outbreak. In contrast, new infections slowed and fatalities declined in Spain for the first time in four days, as infections stabilized in Italy.
