Tanzania began observing three-days of national prayers Friday as COVID-19 infections increased.
President John Magufuli made the declaration for nationwide prayer Thursday, urging Tanzanians to pray for God’s protection and healing as six more people tested positive for the virus, raising the number of infections to 94.
So far, four people have died from the coronavirus in Tanzania, where social gatherings have been suspended and schools closed, but places of worship remain open and people still move about without restrictions.
The appeal for prayers comes as Tanzania canceled this year’s April 26 national holiday commemorating the 1964 merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to become Tanzania because of the virus outbreak.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said Magufuli is redirecting the $217,000 set aside for the holiday celebrations to go toward fighting the coronavirus in the country.
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Month: April 2020
Refugees Protest Under Coronavirus Lockdown in Rwanda
Rwanda’s coronavirus lockdown has led to a protest by refugees and migrants who were relocated to the country last year from crowded detention camps in Libya, witnesses said.They gathered in their camp on Wednesday to organize a demonstration against the lockdown “but authorities came in quickly and stopped it,” Elise Villechalane, spokeswoman with the U.N. refugee agency, told The Associated Press.Nearly 300 refugees and migrants are living in the Gashora emergency transit center outside the capital, Kigali. Rwanda took them in under an agreement signed with the United Nations and African Union after repeated allegations of dire conditions in Libya’s detention centers including beatings, rapes and other abuses.Some refugees had been screened and approved to move to countries such as Norway or Canada — the first large group was resettled in February — but virus-related travel restrictions have stranded the others for now.Rwanda was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to issue a lockdown and recently extended it, to some anxiety. “We understand these refugees are stressed and some still have trauma from Libya, but they have to abide by these measures like other Rwandans,” Villechalane said. The refugee agency said it and Rwanda’s government had printed posters in multiple languages with coronavirus messaging.Residents who live near the transit center said the refugees and migrants exchanged bitter words with camp authorities. “Some of the refugees said they should be allowed to go back home to the countries of their origin,” Jean Claude Habananimana, who coaches a football team for the refugees and migrants, told the AP.
Before the coronavirus spread to Rwanda, they had been allowed to go out and play football with neighboring communities as well as go to church or the mosque.”They cannot go to Europe either,” Habananimana said. “Now their lives are confined in one place.”
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Detained Migrant With COVID-19 Forced to Call In to Court
A detained immigrant who said he tested positive for COVID-19 was required to call in for a court hearing even after a guard said he was too weak to talk, his attorney said Thursday.
When the judge asked Salomon Diego Alonzo to say his name, the guard responded that Alonzo “does not have the lung capacity,” said his lawyer, Veronica Semino, who was listening by phone. The call lasted about two hours, though Judge Mary Baumgarten eventually agreed to delay Alonzo’s final asylum hearing, the attorney said.
Speaking to The Associated Press on Wednesday, the 26-year-old from Guatemala responded to most questions with one- or two-sentence answers, often interrupted by coughing. Alonzo says he has headaches, diarrhea and severe exhaustion that made it difficult for him to get out of bed. He’s confined with one other person in a dorm at an immigration detention center in rural Louisiana, where medical staff check his vital signs twice a day.
“I can barely walk,” Alonzo said. “I’m not safe here.”
His case provides new insight into how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is dealing with a steadily rising number of coronavirus cases among its roughly 32,000 detainees. ICE said Thursday that 100 detainees are confirmed to have COVID-19.
Public health experts have warned that the virus could do particular harm in U.S. jails and prisons because there’s little space for social distancing. Immigration detainees in several states have pleaded for masks and expressed fear of getting the virus, which causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people but can cause more severe illness for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems.
To combat the pandemic, ICE has released about 700 detainees so far, primarily people with known medical conditions. But it has resisted large-scale releases of detainees. Alonzo’s requests to be freed have been denied, said Semino, his attorney.
Alonzo said officials at Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, where he’s held, have told him that he tested positive for COVID-19. ICE would not confirm that to Semino, and spokesman Bryan Cox declined to comment.
Semino says Alonzo was one of nearly 700 people arrested in ICE raids last year on chicken plants in Mississippi, the largest immigration worksite enforcement operation in at least a decade. He has been in the U.S. since 2012, living in an apartment in a small Mississippi town with his wife, teenage brother and daughter, now 8.
Alonzo doesn’t remember being around anyone who looked ill before he started to feel sick himself. He thinks he could have been exposed to the coronavirus in the jail yard, cafeteria or dormitory where he and dozens of others sleep.
Alonzo said he started feeling “very tired” on April 8, describing it as a pain in his bones. The next morning, he went to the nurse. He was found to have a fever, taken to a solitary confinement cell and given medicine to reduce his temperature.
After a few days, someone came to administer a test, he said. Jail officials told him this week that he had the virus and took him to a dormitory with one other person, a man from South Asia who Alonzo believes is also sick. They don’t talk to each other because they don’t speak English, he said.
ICE’s website says Richwood Correctional Center has two confirmed coronavirus cases.
The jail started to detain immigrants last year as part of a broader trend among rural Louisiana prisons. A Cuban man killed himself last year in a Richwood solitary confinement cell, and an Associated Press investigation found jail guards had not checked on him as federal standards require and disregarded warning signs before his death.
On Thursday, Alonzo was scheduled for what’s known as a “merits” hearing, typically an hourslong presentation to explain why he should get asylum. Semino, his attorney, said she requested Tuesday that the hearing be delayed and followed up with the court the next day. Only at the end of the hearing did the judge postpone until April 26.
“For somebody who is potentially dying to have to sit there for two hours, it’s really cruel and inhumane,” Semino said.
A staff member for the judge referred questions to the media relations office for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees U.S. immigration courts. A spokeswoman said she could not comment on Alonzo’s medical status.
Amid the pandemic, the office has postponed all hearings for immigrants not in detention but is holding many hearings for detainees.
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Africa Could See 300,000 Coronavirus Deaths This Year
Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report released Friday that cites modeling from Imperial College London.
Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said.
Even with “intense social distancing.” under the best-case scenario the continent could see more than 122 million infections, the report said.
Any of the scenarios would overwhelm Africa’s largely fragile and underfunded health systems, experts have warned. Under the best-case scenario, $44 billion would be needed for testing, personal protective equipment and treatment, the report said, citing UNECA estimates. The worst-case scenario would cost $446 billion.
The continent as of Friday had more than 18,000 confirmed virus cases, but experts have said Africa is weeks behind Europe in the pandemic and the rate of increase has looked alarmingly similar. The new report is the most detailed public projection yet for coronavirus infections and deaths in Africa, where more than 1.3 billion people are bracing for the pandemic.
Poverty, crowded urban conditions and widespread health problems make Africa “particularly susceptible” to the virus, the U.N. report said. “Of all the continents Africa has the highest prevalence of certain underlying conditions, like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.”
On Thursday, a World Health Organization official said one projection over the next six months shows more than 10 million severe cases of the virus.
“But these are still to be fine-tuned,” said Michel Yao, the WHO’s emergency operations manager in Africa, adding that public health measures could have an impact in limiting cases. He did not give the source of the projection.
The new report also warns of severe economic pain across Africa amid the pandemic, with growth contracting 2.6% in the worst-case scenario and an estimated 27 million people pushed into extreme poverty. The World Bank has said sub-Saharan Africa could fall into its first recession in a quarter-century.
“Collapsed businesses may never recover,” the new report said. “Without a rapid response, governments risk losing control and facing unrest.”
Nearly 20 European and African leaders called this week for an immediate moratorium on all African debt payments, public and private, until the pandemic is over, as well as at least $100 billion in immediate financial help so countries can focus on fighting the virus.
The U.N. report said the continent has no fiscal space to deal with shocks from the pandemic and recommended a “complete temporary debt standstill for two years for all African countries, low and middle income included.”
The report comes days before African officials launch a new initiative to dramatically accelerate testing for the new virus. More than 1 million coronavirus tests are being rolled out starting next week to address a major gap in assessing the true number of cases on the continent.
It’s possible that 15 million tests will be required in Africa over the next three months, the head of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters Thursday.
Africa has suffered in the global competition for badly needed medical equipment but in recent days created a continental platform so its 54 countries can team up to bulk-buy items at more reasonable prices.
One major shipment of equipment, including more than 400 ventilators, arrived this week for sharing among all 54 countries.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and those with other health problems, it can cause pneumonia and death.
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In France’s Working-class Suburbs, Coronavirus Underscores Injustices
On a national discrimination hotline that she helps manage, Rafaelle Parlier hears troubling reports: a veiled woman fined by police for using her veil as a face mask, and a man of North African descent similarly sanctioned for picking up his wife, a nurse, from her hospital shift — although both had appropriate justifications.“These are practices we usually denounce,” said Parlier, who works for anti-discrimination group Stop le Contrôle au Faciès (Stop Racial Profiling). “The confinement just makes it easier.”A woman walks in front of a hotel of the Accor group in Paris, April 16, 2020, during a nationwide confinement to counter the coronavirus. The Accor facilities are taking in people with COVID-19 who show no symptoms but risk infecting others.If COVID-19 touches all of France, its effects are not being felt equally. Poor, ethnically diverse residents are suffering disproportionately, rights activists and local officials say. The fallout varies, from reports of police intimidation and violence to more arduous conditions under lockdown and potentially more coronavirus cases than elsewhere in the country.“The problem with this epidemic is that it underscores all the other pre-existing inequalities,” said Laurent Russier, mayor of Saint-Denis, a working-class Paris suburb with a large immigrant population. “And Saint-Denis is marked by sharp inequalities.”Few areas manifest the national disparities more sharply than the broader Seine-Saint-Denis department, France’s poorest region, where Russier’s town is located. A recent government report found a sharp spike in deaths during the last half of March, when the COVID-19 lockdown began — higher than in neighboring departments.While the government has not linked the uptick to coronavirus, local officials list a raft of underlying weaknesses in the banlieues, as the gritty, working-class suburbs are called.Disparities ‘that kill’In an op-ed piece, Russier joined a half-dozen mayors and elected officials in outlining several disparities “that kill” in the Seine-Saint-Denis department — in justice, security, health, education and jobs.While some Parisians headed to country houses to wait out the pandemic, and a number are telecommuting for work, many of Russier’s residents have “front-line” jobs as health aides, supermarket cashiers and delivery workers, sometimes without protective masks. Peeling housing projects sometimes pack large, intergenerational families into tiny, unhealthy spaces, creating coronavirus clusters in some cases.“So if someone catches COVID-19 in an apartment that’s multigenerational, the contagion is more rapid,” Russier said, “and the confinement is harder.”Some banlieue graveyards report they are close to saturation, a situation that has not been helped by the recent uptick in deaths.“Usually, I sign three or four burial certificates a week. But over the last few weeks, I’m signing three or four a day,” Sylvine Thomassin, mayor of another working-class suburb, told Le Monde newspaper.FILE – A family watches French President Emmanuel Macron’s televised speech, April 13, 2020, in Lyon, central France. Macron announced an extension of France’s nationwide lockdown until May 11.The message seems to have hit home with the French government. Addressing the nation Monday, President Emmanuel Macron — who has earned underwhelming marks for addressing banlieue grievances — promised nearly $1 billion more in financial aid for poor families.France’s banlieues have long been considered flashpoints for unresolved social and economic grievances. In 2005, they exploded into rioting — a theme of the recent hit movie “Les Miserables” — revealing the tense and violent relationship between police and banlieue youngsters.Old story, new context Today, the coronavirus simply offers a new context for discriminatory treatment, some activists say. Several videos posted on social media show police slapping and otherwise harassing youngsters for allegedly violating tough lockdown measures. In some cases, the young people have filed legal complaints.“The issue of police violence is not new. It’s the usual targets, this time with the pretext of enforcing the confinement,” said Lanna Hollo, senior legal officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative in Paris.”There are young people terrified to go out,” she added. “They may be the ones charged with the shopping or who have to go to work, and they’re afraid of being abused.”In the Seine-Saint-Denis department, mayors and other officials say residents are largely following lockdown measures. Russier is among them.But he denies excessive police behavior — at least in his town.”There are some youngsters who don’t respect confinement, in some cases, defiantly,” he said. “But police are being careful. The idea is to avoid confrontation. They are very, very vigilant not to pour oil into the fire.”
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‘Makeshift Morgue’ at New Jersey Nursing Home Sparks Broader Coronavirus Probe
New Jersey’s governor on Thursday ordered a probe into long-term care facilities after a “makeshift morgue” was found at a nursing home devastated by the novel coronavirus, raising questions about the death toll at homes for the elderly.Phil Murphy said he asked his attorney general to launch the wide-ranging investigation after becoming “outraged that bodies of the dead were allowed to pile up” in a room at a nursing home in Andover, a town in the northern part of the state.The probe comes as officials across the United States grapple with mounting deaths at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, where the virus can spread like wildfire and has proven especially deadly given the age of the residents, who are often living close together and cared for by the same staff.”You have people who by definition are medically fragile and at risk and you add to that this terrible virus,” said Laurie Facciarossa Brewer, the New Jersey state ombudsman for long-term care facilities. “It’s hitting crisis proportions now.”The incident that sparked the investigation occurred at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, where several bodies were found in a makeshift morgue at the facility. A total of 66 residents of the nursing home have died, half of whom were confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to a spokeswoman for New Jersey’s health department.”The backup and after hours holiday weekend issues, plus more than average deaths, contributed to the presence of more deceased than normal in the facility holding room,” facility co-owner Chaim Sheinbaum said in a statement provided by the Andover police department.Andover Township Police Department Chief Eric Danielson briefs the media at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover Township, N.J., on April 16, 2020.”The staff was overwhelmed by the number of bodies,” Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson told reporters, adding that his officers helped move 13 bodies to a refrigerated trailer at another medical site.New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said on Thursday his office was investigating the high number of deaths at certain nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the state following a cluster of fatalities at the Andover facility.New Jersey is not alone. More than 21,000 residents and staff at long-term care facilities have contracted COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, and some 3,800 have died, according to a tally by The New York Times.In Florida, officials have been scrambling to stop the pandemic’s spread through the state’s massive elderly population while also clamping down on details about its effect on the huge network of retirement homes. As of Thursday morning there were 1,394 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among patients and staff at the state’s nearly 4,000 elder care facilities.Florida, along with California and Texas, has the highest number of residents who are over the age of 65 and most at-risk from the virus. DeSantis earlier this week called in the Florida National Guard to form so-called strike teams to conduct spot coronavirus tests. The teams so far found at least one resident or staff member test positive at 93 facilities.Ambulance crews are parked outside Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover, N.J., on Thursday April 16, 2020.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that nursing homes were “ground zero” in the fight against the virus, with nursing homes accounting for 29 of the day’s 606 newly reported deaths in the state.At a daily briefing on Thursday, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said the national guard and health officials had been sent to investigate a problem at a long-term facility in Jackson County in the western part of the state. He did not provide details but said the incident troubled him.”These are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable,” Justice said. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of New Jersey’s Congressional delegation called on U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to request that the U.S. Public Health Service deploy men and women to assist with critical staffing needs at long-term care facilities in their state.As the problems mount, relatives are often left feeling helpless. Brewer, the New Jersey ombudsman, said calls to her office tripled over the weekend as families struggled to get information about loved ones from facilities that may be too stretched to respond in a timely manner. The same thing has been seen in other states.Laura-Lynne Powell, 59, of Sacramento, California, found herself pushing from across the country to get a COVID-19 test for her mother at a facility in West Hartford, Connecticut.”We wanted to make sure if it took her, that she doesn’t end up around the uncounted dead,” Powell said. “We’re never going to know how this disease took an entire generation away from us,” she said. “If it took Mom I have to know — we all do.”
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Trump’s Former Lawyer Scheduled for House Arrest After Prison’s COVID-19 Outbreak
The former personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump is set to be released early from his prison sentence because of a COVID-19 outbreak in the prison where he is serving time.Michael Cohen, who is serving a three-year sentence, was scheduled to be released from the Otisville, New York, prison late next year.He will serve the remainder of his time under house confinement.Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.Cohen admitted he helped to arrange hush money payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The president has denied the affairs.Cohen will undergo a 14-day quarantine at the prison before he is released.
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UN, EU, US Welcome Release, Exchange of Prisoners in E. Ukraine
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States welcomed the release and exchange of prisoners in eastern Ukraine, which has been torn by a 6-year-old armed conflict.The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he remained hopeful this “humanitarian action” ahead of Orthodox Easter “will serve as a positive step toward more progress, including a permanent cease-fire,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.“Further disengagement of forces and unimpeded humanitarian access across the contact line is expected as part of ongoing peace efforts of international actors,” added Dujarric.Guterres urged all parties engaged in the conflict “to take further measures in order to enable progress” in the implementation of peace agreements.“Full implementation of the Minsk agreements is the only way to reach a sustainable and peaceful solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU.“Russia and the armed formations that it backs must also ensure freedom of movement across the contact line for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission” and other humanitarian actors, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to reach all those still in detention, the statement reads.The EU also reaffirmed its strong support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.Foreign ministers of France and Germany said in a joint statement that the release and exchange of prisoners related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine “represents significant progress” for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and the conclusions of the summit in Paris on December 9, 2019, “with respect to upholding the cease-fire, mine clearance, the opening of new crossing points and the identification of new disengagement zones.”In a Twitter message, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine welcomed the move and commended the country’s government on its “continued efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to the Russia-instigated conflict in Ukraine.”It is also called on Russia “to immediately release all other Ukrainians who remain unjustly imprisoned and fully withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”Thursday’s prisoner exchange was the third since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was elected in a landslide last year on promises to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014. More than 14,000 people have been killed, and it has heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
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45-Minute COVID-19 Tests Aid Remote Australian Aboriginal Communities
Australia will start rapid coronavirus testing for more than 80 remote indigenous settlements. The 45-minute test will help authorities to monitor the spread of COVID-19 more efficiently in isolated areas where results can currently take up to 10 days.The rapid tests will allow aboriginal health services in remote parts of Australia to respond quickly if COVID-19 is identified. Indigenous leaders believe any outbreak would be devastating for communities that already have complex health problems and a life expectancy of about 10 years less than the nonaboriginal population. There are high rates of renal failure, diabetes and smoking, while housing is often overcrowded in these communities.The government says indigenous peoples are at elevated risk of the new coronavirus.Ministers say the 45-minute tests are a “game-changing improvement,” and professor James Ward from the University of Queensland agrees.“Significant delays with COVID[-19] testing and diagnosis will result in major ramifications, including outbreaks for many of our communities, so it is [a] really very important tool in the toolbox,” he said. “We are in [a] much better situation than we were in the 2009 pandemic of H1N1, where aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were significantly over-represented in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and death rates.”During an outbreak of H1N1 swine flu in 2009, indigenous Australians made up a fifth of all hospital admissions and 13 percent of deaths. They comprise about 3 percent of the national population, and they suffer disproportionately high rates of poverty, ill health and imprisonment.Some remote aboriginal settlements in Australia are banning outsiders in an attempt to stop the march of COVID-19 across the country.The rapid COVID-19 tests are expected to begin within weeks. The technology is a result of collaboration between the Sydney-based Kirby Institute and Flinders University in South Australia.
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FBI Official Says Foreign Hackers Targeting COVID-19 Research
A senior cybersecurity official with the FBI said on Thursday that foreign government hackers have broken into companies conducting research into treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.FBI Deputy Assistant Director Tonya Ugoretz told participants in an online panel discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute that the bureau had recently seen state-backed hackers poking around a series of health care and research institutions.”We certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves as working on COVID-related research,” she said.Ugoretz said it made sense for institutions working on promising treatments or a potential vaccine to tout their work publicly. However, she said, “The sad flipside is that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing proprietary information that those institutions have.”Ugoretz said that state-backed hackers had often targeted biopharmaceutical industry but said “it’s certainly heightened during this crisis.” She did not name specific countries or identify targeted organizations.”Medical research organizations and those who work for them should be vigilant against threat actors seeking to steal intellectual property or other sensitive data related to America’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bill Evanina, Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. “Now is the time to protect the critical research you’re conducting.”The FBI declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had no immediate comment.
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Trump Announces Plan to Reopen US Economy
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government has a three-stage prescription for restarting normal life in America.”We’re opening up our great country again,” announced President Donald Trump at a coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday where the guidelines were unveiled. “We’re going to be very vigilant and very careful.”A 14-day downward trajectory in COVID-19 cases and widespread coronavirus and antibody testing for hospital workers are suggested for individual states before beginning the phased restart of economies that are convulsing because of the highly infectious virus.In the first phase, schools and bars would remain closed. But places of worship, restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and sports arenas could reopen with strict physical distancing. Hospitals could perform elective surgeries.In Phase 2, schools could reopen, and nonessential travel could resume, but most employees would be encouraged to continue to telework.The third phase recommends “unrestricted staffing of work sites,” but would see the medically vulnerable resuming public interactions, with them practicing physical distancing unless they take precautionary measures.The Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 16, 2020.The medical members on the White House’s coronavirus task force — infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — endorsed the plan.The driving element for the plan was “the safety and health of the American public,” Fauci said. Trump previewed the plan earlier Thursday on a videoconference call with governors of the 50 U.S. states, telling them, “You’re going to call your own shots” on the economy’s reopening. Earlier in the week, in response to a VOA question during a White House briefing, Trump declared he “calls the shots” on such decisions. Amid some fierce bipartisan criticism that the president has no such powers over states, he backed away from his assertion of total authority. “We did not put a timeline on any of the phases,” Birx said, explaining that would be left up to state governors.”Not every state, not every region, is going to do it at the same time,” Fauci emphasized.Trump expressed optimism that as many as 29 states were ready to enter Phase 1 immediately.The president has made no secret of his impatience to revitalize the country’s economy as quickly as possible, with commerce and industry at their lowest levels of activity since the era of the Great Depression nearly a century ago.Over the past month, more than 20 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment benefits.”There’s death, and there are problems in staying at home, too,” Trump said Thursday.Many health experts, business leaders and governors have been hesitant to quickly end social distancing, concerned that lifting the restrictions without widespread COVID-19 testing poses serious health risks.Trump acknowledged there could be flare-ups, and if that occurs, “we’ll be able to suppress it, whack it.”Decisions by statesSeven U.S. states in the Northeast have extended their shutdowns until May 15.”What happens after that, I don’t know. We will see, depending on what the data says,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has been the hardest hit in the United States, told a news briefing on Thursday before the White House outlined its proposal.A person walks by a closed business in New York City, April 16, 2020. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during his daily COVID-19 briefing that the “New York State on PAUSE” order will be extended until May 15.Governors of seven U.S. Midwestern states announced on Thursday a consortium of their own to coordinate a regional response.Three governors from the West Coast have formed a similar effort on reopening their economies. Last week, Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the U.S., extended its restrictions to May 15. The District of Columbia, home of the federal government, did the same on Wednesday.The governor of the Midwestern state of Ohio tweeted Thursday, “I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.”I am an optimist and am confident that Ohioans will also live up to the challenge of doing things differently as we open back up beginning on May 1st.— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) April 16, 2020The number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in the United States on Wednesday rose by 2,500, a second consecutive daily record. The U.S. death toll in the global pandemic exceeds 32,000, higher than any other country has reported.The virus has also taken a toll on Trump’s job approval ratings. According to the latest Gallup poll, his public support stands at 43%.”The six-point decline in the president’s approval rating is the sharpest drop Gallup has recorded for the Trump presidency so far, largely because Trump’s ratings have been highly stable and have yet to reach the historical average for presidents (back to 1945) of 53%,” according to the pollster.
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Study: Warming Makes US West Megadrought Worst in Modern Age
A two-decade-long dry spell that has parched much of the western United States is turning into one of the deepest megadroughts in the region in more than 1,200 years, a new study found. And about half of this historic drought can be blamed on man-made global warming, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science. Scientists looked at a nine-state area from Oregon and Wyoming down through California and New Mexico, plus a sliver of southwestern Montana and parts of northern Mexico. They used thousands of tree rings to compare a drought that started in 2000 and is still going — despite a wet 2019 — to four past megadroughts since the year 800. With soil moisture as the key measurement, they found only one other drought that was as big and was likely slightly bigger. That one started in 1575, just 10 years after St. Augustine, the first European city in the United States, was founded, and that drought ended before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. FILE – A bathtub ring marks the high water line as a recreational boat approaches Hoover Dam along Black Canyon on Lake Mead near Boulder City, Nev., April 16, 2013.What’s happening now is “a drought bigger than what modern society has seen,” said study lead author A. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University. Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist who wasn’t part of the study, called the research important because it provides evidence “that human-caused climate change transformed what might have otherwise been a moderate long-term drought into a severe event comparable to the ‘megadroughts’ of centuries past.” What’s happening is that a natural but moderate drought is being worsened by temperatures that are 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 degrees Celsius) hotter than the past and that suck moisture out of the ground, Williams said. It’s much like how clothes and plants dry faster in the warmth of indoors than they do outside, he said. To quantify the role of global warming, researchers used 31 computer models to compare what’s happening now to what would happen in a mythical world without the burning of fossil fuels that spews billions of tons of heat-trapping gases. They found on average that 47% of the drought could be blamed on human-caused climate change. “We’ve been increasingly drifting into a world that’s getting dryer,” Williams said. ‘Megadrought’ titleThere’s debate among scientists over whether this current drought warrants the title “megadrought” because so far it has only lasted two decades and others are at least 28 years long. Climate scientist Clara Deser at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who wasn’t part of the study, said while the research is good, she thinks the deep drought has to last another decade or so to qualify as a “megadrought.” Williams said he understands the concern and that’s why the study calls it “an emerging megadrought.” “It’s still going on and it’s 21 years long,” Williams said. “This drought looks like one of the worst ones of the last millennium except for the fact that it hasn’t lasted as long.” University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck, who studies southwestern climate and was not part of the study, calls it “the first observed multidecadal megadrought in recorded U.S. history.” Wet 2019Although last year was wet, past megadroughts have had wet years and the recent rain and snow was not nearly enough to make up for the deep drought years before, Williams said. The U.S. drought monitor puts much of Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada and good chunks of New Mexico, Arizona and Idaho in abnormally dry, moderate or severe drought conditions. Wyoming is the only state Williams studied that doesn’t have large areas of drought.This week, water managers warned that the Rio Grande is forecast to have water flows less than half of normal, while New Mexico’s largest reservoir is expected to top out at about one-third of its 30-year average. This is “what we can expect going forward in a world with continued global warming,” said Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh, who wasn’t part of the study.
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As New York Looks to Heal From Coronavirus, Its Economy Falls Ill
As coronavirus cases begin to slow in hard-hit New York, the state’s economic health has deteriorated, and it faces a difficult and painful recovery without significant help from the federal government. The northeastern state of 19.5 million people has seen a record 1.2 million unemployment claims filed in the past five weeks, since the virus started spreading rapidly and the state “paused” its nonessential businesses and workforce to contain the outbreak, leading to a drying up of revenue. FILE – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference against a backdrop of medical supplies, March 24, 2020.“We are at a point financially where we have a $10 [billion] to $15 billion deficit,” Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters Thursday in the capital, Albany. “We have real financial problems right now.” As of Thursday, statewide there were nearly 215,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and more than 12,000 deaths. This week, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions started to slow, prompting the governor to say the “worst is over.” But he is leaving in place social distancing and stay-at-home measures until May 15, fearing a premature reopening could lead to a resurgence in infections. The shuttering of so many businesses has crippled the state’s thriving economy, which had a GDP of more than $1.5 trillion in 2017, accounting for 8% of the national total, according to the New York state comptroller’s website. On March 25, the U.S. Senate passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package to address the negative economic impact of the coronavirus. New York, which leads the nation in confirmed cases and hospitalizations, received only $3.8 billion. “You pass a piece of legislation that starves state and local governments, you’re not helping the country, you’re just not,” Cuomo said. New York City received only $1.3 billion from the stimulus package, a figure Mayor Bill de Blasio called “immoral.”FILE – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio: “We will get through this crisis.”“The only way you have recovery is if places like New York City in particular, the great economic leader and engine of this nation, if we’re strong, our nation can be strong,” de Blasio said at a news conference to unveil the city’s new budget. “If we’re not strong, if our people are not safe, then this nation can’t recover. And that’s true for cities and states all over the country.” The mayor said over the current fiscal year and the next, the city would lose $7.4 billion in tax revenue because of the pandemic. He said that the city would cut $2 billion from its budget, but even with such drastic cuts, federal assistance is still critical. “We’re taking the actions that we can take, but the only force that can ensure that we get through this the right way is the federal government,” de Blasio said. “They have the ability to provide the resources in a way that no one else, no organization, nothing else on Earth can help us the way the federal government can, and now it’s their hour of decision.” The mayor said that the revised budget of $89.3 billion for fiscal 2021 would have four priorities: keeping New Yorkers healthy and safe and making sure they are fed and housed. “A budget is a statement of values; our values are clear,” he said. “We’re here to protect people and we will do so, and we will get through this crisis. It will not be easy, but we will get through this crisis.”
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California Nursing Home Reports 154 Virus Cases, 8 Deaths
VISALIA, CALIFORNIA — A California nursing home has 154 coronavirus cases and eight residents have died in an outbreak that has prompted authorities to prepare to evacuate residents if adequate staffing can’t be maintained.Redwood Springs Healthcare Center in Visalia reported 106 residents and 48 staff members tested positive for the virus. All patients and staff are being tested and the 176-bed facility in the agricultural Central Valley is receiving staffing support from the county, the state and hospitals, said Anita Hubbard, the center’s administrator.The county is prepared to evacuate the home only as an “absolute worst-case scenario,” Tim Lutz, director of the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency, told the Visalia Times Delta. The outbreak is the latest of many at skilled nursing facilities, which are especially vulnerable to the virus because many residents are elderly with existing health conditions and they live in close proximity to each other.Thirteen people have died in an outbreak that infected nearly 70 residents and staff at Gateway Care and Rehabilitation Center in Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Alameda County district attorney has launched a criminal investigation into patient deaths at that facility, which in the past has been cited by state regulators for lacking sufficient staff. After virus cases were discovered at Magnolia Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Riverside, so many staff members failed to show up for work that county officials evacuated residents.In Los Angeles County, the state’s largest, 133 people who lived in nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities have died from the virus. Health officials said they account for about a third of the county’s virus deaths.Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state would train and deploy 600 nurses to support compliance with COVID-19 guidance at the state’s nearly 8,700 skilled nursing and residential care facilities. Visits to the facilities already have been sharply restricted.He said state officials are reaching out to facilities to assess their needs. He also said the state will provide stipends to nurses, nurse assistants and other staff members and offer free or low-cost hotel rooms for workers possibly exposed to the virus or who test positive and don’t need to be hospitalized.Protecting California’s most vulnerable residents and employees is a top priority, Newsom said,The USNS Mercy hospital ship, which is docked in Los Angeles, will send about 40 medical staff to a regional skilled nursing facility on Monday, said Navy Capt. John Rotruck, the ship’s commander. It was not immediately clear which facility would receive the assistance. Virus cases have been reported at facilities in San Bernardino, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
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Backup of Bodies Overwhelms Nursing Home amid Outbreak
An extraordinary number of coronavirus-related deaths appears to have overwhelmed a nursing home in northern New Jersey where police found 18 bodies in what the governor called a “makeshift morgue” on two consecutive days earlier this week.Police got an anonymous tip Monday that a body was being stored outside the home, Andover Township Police Chief Eric Danielson said Thursday.When police arrived, he said, the body wasn’t where the tipster had said it was — but they found 13 bodies inside. They were removed Monday night and taken to a hospital in a refrigerated truck.The New Jersey Herald first reported the finding of the bodies, which followed the discovery of five bodies at the home Sunday after complaints from staff and family members to law enforcement.The remains found at the facility are among 68 deaths linked to the home, including residents and two nurses, The New York Times reported, citing Danielson, other officials and county records shared with a federal official. At least 26 of those deaths were confirmed by laboratory tests to be related to COVID-19, the newspaper said.Staffing was adequate, but an extraordinary number of deaths over the weekend had overwhelmed the facility’s resources, a co-owner of the home said in an email Thursday.”The back up and after hours holiday weekend issues, plus more than average deaths, contributed to the presence of more deceased than normal in the facility holding room,” nursing home co-owner Chaim Scheinbaum wrote.The area used to house deceased residents until they can be picked up by a funeral home has a normal capacity of four, “with a maximum of 12,” Scheinbaum wrote.Staffing at the facility is “solid” with 12 nurses, one more than normal, and 39 nursing assistants, one fewer than normal, Scheinbaum wrote.Police released a photo of a box truck parked outside the home that was being used to store the bodies after a hazmat team removed them.More than 100 residents and staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the Times reported.U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat whose district covers Andover Township, said he was notified over the weekend that the facility was “desperate for body bags.” He said he had received calls and emails from concerned relatives.”One of my concerns is that these facilities are not communicating in real time,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been hearing from families. That’s outrageous, it’s completely unacceptable that they have to call me for updates.”Gov. Phil Murphy said at a news briefing Thursday that “several individuals” had died at the Andover nursing home and that he has asked the state attorney general to look into what happened there, as well as at any other nursing homes that have had many deaths.The Democratic governor said he was “outraged that bodies of the dead were allowed to pile up in a makeshift morgue at the facility. New Jerseyans living in our long-term care facilities deserve to be cared for with respect, compassion and dignity.”The coronavirus has spread quickly through nursing homes around the country, leading to pressure on federal health officials to publicly track COVID-19 infections and deaths. In New Jersey, 471 residents of long-term care facilities had died through Wednesday, and 358 of the state’s 375 facilities have reported positive cases, according to state health officials.Since last month, the state has banned visitation, ordered universal masking and required that all facilities notify residents, family and staff of any outbreaks.Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said this week that 123 long-term care facilities have been prohibited from admitting patients because they haven’t demonstrated they can effectively segregate COVID-19-infected residents from those who aren’t infected.In the past week, Persichilli said, the state had distributed more than 100,000 N95 masks, nearly 700,000 surgical masks, 7,000 face shields and more than 700,000 gloves to long-term facilities.
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Russia Postpones WWII Victory Day Celebrations
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the postponement of May 9 celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in World War II, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a security meeting on Thursday, Putin said events including a massive military parade in Red Square would be postponed until a later date. “In order for the parade to be held on May 9, the preparations need to begin right now, but the risks associated with the epidemic, whose peak has not been passed yet, are still extremely high and that does not give me the right to start preparations for the parade and other mass events now,” the president said. Events marking Victory Day in other regions of the country were also postponed. Russia has implemented a partial lockdown across the country until April 30 as coronavirus infections continue to rise. There have been some 28,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 232 deaths, according to official data. Critics say the number of infections and deaths is likely much higher.
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East African Flower Industry Wilts as Sales to Europe Dry Up
Among its many other effects, the coronavirus pandemic has cut deeply into flower sales. This is being felt in the Netherlands, the center of the global horticulture industry, and in East African flower exporting countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, where tens of thousands of jobs are increasingly in danger. Aalsmeer, just outside of Amsterdam, is home to the world’s busiest flower auction, where thousands of flowers are purchased each day and shipped all over the world.But since the coronavirus pandemic began, flower sales have dropped by 50 percent, says Michel van Schie of the Royal Flora Holland company. FILE – Empty racks are seen at flower auctioneer Royal FloraHolland in Aalsmeer, Netherlands, March 19, 2020. Sales at major Dutch growers have slumped, forcing farmers to destroy their flower crops.”This is also the period with the most important days for the flower industry like Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day, Mother’s Day,” van Schie said. “The crisis which we are now facing couldn’t have come at a worse moment than this. Not only there were a lot of unsold flowers, but the flowers that were sold were also sold for very low prices.”That is bad news for Africa’s leading flower-growing countries, Kenya and Ethiopia.Flower exports add about $1 billion annually to the Kenyan economy. But with demand falling sharply, Kenyan exports have dropped by about two-thirds in recent weeks, costing the industry and the country millions in revenue.Hosea Machuki, CEO of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, says the situation is critical.”And we just hope that when it’s all done, that the industries and the companies that are involved in the horticulture industry will be able to spring back to life, or at least continue their business and to keep their employees,” Machuki said. “We have about 350,000 Kenyans directly employed and at the moment about 200,000, they’re likely to lose their jobs on account of loss of business.”FILE – Farm worker Evans Makori pulls a handcart of roses to be thrown away at Maridadi Flowers farm in Naivasha, Kenya, March 19, 2020.Neighboring Ethiopia is the second-largest African flower exporter, and the horticulture sector is the country’s fourth-largest in export earnings. But because of COVID-19, Ethiopia is exporting only about 20 percent of its usual volume.Frank Ammerlaan, a Dutch flower farmer in Ethiopia, says he noticed the effects immediately once Europe was hit with the coronavirus. “Majority of our sales stop suddenly. And that’s because of shops in Europe being closed, borders being closed and logistics to give priority for food items and other essential items. So it was a big shock for us,” he said.Ammerlaan employs about 1,000 people and usually exports two million stems a week to the Dutch flower auction, but business has dropped by 30 to 40 percent.To prevent the Ethiopian flower industry from collapsing and to keep foreign exchange flowing into the country, the government has designated the sector as essential – meaning its companies and its estimated 150,000 workers can keep operating despite the state of emergency measures.
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Britain to Extend Lockdown for 3 More Weeks
The British government Thursday said it will extend for three weeks its nationwide lockdown intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking at a remote news briefing in London, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies warned that relaxing any of the safety measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and the British economy. Raab reported 13,729 people in Britain have now died from the virus, with 103,093 confirmed cases.The foreign minister continues to lead the government response to the pandemic while British Prime Minster Boris Johnson continues to recover from his bout with coronavirus. Britain’s lockdown has been in place since March 23.
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South African Gynecologist on the Front Lines in the Battle Against Coronavirus
South Africa’s quick move to implement a strict national lockdown seems to have slowed down the coronavirus infection rate considerably in the country, according scientists. One of the South African doctors at the forefront of fighting the disease is Dr. Taheera Hassim, a gynecologist who is also volunteering for the disaster response NGO, Gift of the Givers. When the coronavirus pandemic hit South Africa, Dr. Hassim’s role changed and she is now in charge of her hospital’s gynecological isolation facility while also volunteering at a drive-through coronavirus testing center. Reporter Marize de Klerk brings us Dr. Hassim’s story, told in her own words.
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Kenyan Court Charges Catholic Priest With Spreading Coronavirus
A Catholic priest was charged in Kenyan court on Thursday with spreading the coronavirus, the second person to face such charges in Kenya.Kenya, which has 234 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths, has banned all public gatherings, limited the number of mourners at funerals, imposed a daily curfew and restricted movement in and out of four regions most affected.Catholic priest Richard Onyango Oduor was charged with having “negligently spread an infectious disease” after authorities said he failed to adhere to coronavirus quarantine rules following a visit to Italy.He denied the charges in a Nairobi court, and was freed on a 150,000 Kenyan shilling ($1,415) bond. He was ordered to spend another 14 days in quarantine and reappear in court on May 2.Archbishop Anthony Muheria, in charge of the Catholic dioceses of Nyeri and Kitui, told Reuters he could not comment on the case, and it was up to the authorities to determine whether the priest was at fault.Last week, another court charged Gideon Saburi, the deputy governor of the coastal region of Kilifi County, with spreading the coronavirus by going out in public without taking precautions. He also denied the charges as was freed on bond while being ordered to self-quarantine.Some African countries have had trouble persuading citizens to comply with restrictions imposed to curb the virus.Kenyan media have been awash with stories of people trying to circumvent restrictions, holding parties in their houses and parks due to bar closures. A lawmaker was arrested for holding a party at a restaurant in the capital on Easter weekend.Last week, some Botswana lawmakers were put in supervised quarantine after failing to observe an instruction to self-isolate. All of the country’s parliamentarians and President Mokgweetsi Masisi were asked to quarantine for 14 days after a health worker screening them tested positive.In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa last week put its communications minister on leave for two months, one of which will be unpaid, for breaking the rules of a countrywide lockdown and having lunch with a former official.
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Amsterdam Set to Ban Tourist Home Rentals in 3 Neighborhoods
Amsterdam, in the midst of an unprecedented tourism slump caused by restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, announced Thursday that it is planning to ban people from renting out homes to visitors in three historic downtown neighborhoods.
The move, which is set to come into force July 1, is the Dutch capital’s latest attempt to rein in people renting their homes out on platforms like Airbnb amid complaints from residents that tourists are spoiling their quality of life.
It goes hand-in-hand with a system coming into force July 1 in Amsterdam that will mean anybody renting out their home in the city will have to have a permit. City Hall will not be issuing permits for the three neighborhoods covered by the ban.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Airbnb said 95% of its listings in Amsterdam are outside the areas covered by the ban, and added that the company already has introduced tools to tackle noise and nuisance.
“We remain eager to work with Amsterdam to support long-term solutions on home sharing — rather than short-term fixes that are confusing and damaging for residents and small businesses in these challenging times,” Airbnb said.
Amsterdam has, in recent years, tightened rules for people renting out their homes, including limiting owners to a maximum of 30 nights a year and to a maximum of four guests on any given night.
The city’s district of picturesque canals and cobbled lanes is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has been swamped by tourists in recent years, leading to a rising chorus of complaints from local residents.
However, coronavirus restrictions have seen an unusual quiet descend on the city in recent weeks. Streets often choked with tourists are now largely deserted.
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Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, Florida County Pulls Welcome Mat
As Jessica Cherry watched traffic from her porch, she wondered with each passing vehicle if the coronavirus had made its way into her rural Florida Panhandle community.
For weeks, residents of Liberty County watched as infections spread, reaching into all of Florida’s 67 counties but their own — the state’s least populous — and worried about the devastating effect the coronavirus could have on their 8,300 people.
“When you see somebody drive by, your anxiety level goes up with each passing car because you think: They’re going somewhere and get contaminated and they’ll be bringing it to us,” Cherry said. Cherry, a kindergarten teacher, has been working from home for nearly a month while schools are closed in an effort to limit the virus’s spread. Like her neighbors, she has grown wary of outsiders, especially those who could be harboring an invisible enemy.
“At least with a hurricane, you know it’s coming,” she said.
It’s not that folks in Liberty County aren’t welcoming. In fact, the sign on the edge of Bristol — population not quite 1,000 — seems hospitable enough: “Welcome to our friendly city.”
Locals used to be glad for out-of-town traffic to stray off the road for provisions at the local market, or gas on the way to the beach or the state capital an hour away.
Townsfolk acknowledge there’s really not much to see or do here, unless you like roaming pine-scented country roads, listening to birds chirp and watching traffic go by.
But the encroaching pandemic has strained their welcoming nature.
Some thought it odd when strangers began invading the local market to fill carts with toilet paper and other necessities. Who knew where they were from and what they could be spreading?
And history offered other reasons to be leery of outsiders. When Hurricane Michael devastated the region two years ago, Liberty County, like so many rural enclaves across the Florida Panhandle, was desperate for help. Outsiders came pouring in, including some that took advantage of the community’s trust and desperation.
One by one, nearby counties joined the list of confirmed cases. As of Wednesday night, Florida reported nearly 22,000 infections statewide, and the number of deaths surpassed 600.
Leon County to the east, home to the state capital, had at least 150 cases. Gadsden to the north counted nearly 40, and Franklin to the south recorded its first case two weeks ago. Neighboring Calhoun County, just on the other side of the Apalachicola River, had five recorded cases.
“I thought that when Calhoun County got it, that was going to be it,” said Matthias Schmarje, who lives in Liberty County but runs a restaurant in Blountstown, Calhoun County’s biggest community. But as the days passed, Liberty County remained without a confirmed infection, and residents prayed it could extend its luck — just maybe it could elude the global pandemic.
Liberty seemed a safe distance from the epicenter of the state’s COVID-19 infections — about 500 miles from Broward and Miami-Dade, the counties with the bulk of the state’s cases.
As cases spread, residents watched the number of virus-free counties on Florida’s outbreak map dwindle.
“We had a running joke that we were in the state playoffs,” he said. “Who’s going to be the last man standing in the state of Florida? … We never win anything.”
In a bit of gallows humor, townsfolk gloated when Liberty County achieved that distinction.
Then worry crept back in.
“I don’t know how long it will be before we get a case, but I know it’s inevitable. Everybody’s going to have it everywhere,” Schmarje said. “That’s kind of how a pandemic works, right?”
To help keep their streak alive, the local sewing club decided to swing into action.
Club membership swelled. Some of its newest members could barely thread a needle, but they lent a hand by bending pipe cleaners for nose clips on face masks. The group made scores of masks for friends and neighbors and hopes to produce hundreds more to donate to a hospital in Tallahassee.
Schmarje’s mother, Cathia, said she joined the effort “to keep your family safe, to keep your children safe, to keep your elderly safe.”
Some sewing club members anointed themselves the community mask police, turning a stern eye on those without masks and offering a covering to anyone who wanted one.
Cathia Schmarje said they’d been praying the virus would skip their county but acknowledged the inevitable.
“You can’t be so naive to think that we’re not ever going to see this in this community. Because it’s coming,” she said.
Their time ran out on Good Friday, of all days.
News spread quickly of the county’s first coronavirus infection: a 56-year-old man who had been in contact with an infected person from across the river.
Then on Tuesday, the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office said another county resident, a 29-year-old man, had come down with COVID-19.
For Cherry, the schoolteacher, concern shifted to what lies ahead.
“Of course, it makes us worry that there’s more — that there’s going to be more coming,” she said. “And who’s next?”
Could Erode Global Fight Against Other Diseases
Quality public hospitals such as the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi are few in number, confined to the big cities and already hugely overburdened.
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Powerful Republican Allies Propel Trump Effort to Reopen Economy
Leading Republicans say the coronavirus shutdown cannot go on. Car-honking activists swarmed a statehouse Wednesday to protest stay-home restrictions. Capitol Hill staff are quietly drafting bills to undo the just-passed rescue aid and push Americans back to work.Behind President Donald Trump’s effort to accelerate re-opening the U.S. economy during the pandemic is a contingent of Republican allies eager to have his back. “It’s very much time to start having that conversation and start figuring that out,” said Republican Senator Pat Toomey who has shared his views with Trump.The push to revive the economy is being influenced and amplified by a potent alliance of big money business interests, religious freedom conservatives and small-government activists, some with direct dial to Trump. They are gaining currency as a counter-point to the health professionals who warn of potentially deadly consequences from easing coronavirus stay-home restrictions too soon. The mobilization is reminiscent of the tea party rebellion a decade ago, when conservatives roared against federal intervention in recession recovery. It’s drawing a similar band of deficit hawks alarmed by the $2.2 trillion rescue package, religious congregants who say their right to worship is being violated and conservative lawmakers warning of a slide toward big government “socialism” with expanded safety net programs.”How do you rein in some of the tyrannical enforcement?” said Republican Congressman Andy Biggs, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, in a radio interview. Economist Stephen Moore is leading a new coalition to fire up activists nationwide. The conservative Heritage Foundation put forward a five-point re-opening plan. Republicans discuss options almost weekly on the House GOP’s private conference calls.”It’s about promoting liberty and freedom,” Moore said. “It’s about stopping spending that will bankrupt the country and getting the $20 trillion engine that is the American economy started again as soon as possible — as in tomorrow.”Early on in the crisis, Trump’s instinct to re-open was kept in check by two unlikely forces — the health professionals on the White House’s coronavirus task force and the Trump campaign, which warned that widespread fatalities would be more damaging to the president’s reelection than the economic fallout, according to a Republican granted anonymity to discuss the private assessment.But as the national stay-home guidelines appear to have limited the virus spread, and the mounting death toll, now beyond 27,000, is less than first envisioned, those political calculations seem to be shifting toward the economic concerns, the person said.”We have to learn to live with this,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, which is holding weekly virtual town halls with members of Congress, igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort.Advocates say they are focusing on parts of the economy and regions of the country where virus spread is low or workers can do their jobs while maintaining social distancing. They point to construction, landscaping and factory floors. They envision new rules — everyone wears face masks — and other safety precautions. These Republicans warn that the public health emphasis has failed to take into account the broader societal toll of a prolonged shutdown and potential for a Great Depression. The government cannot keep throwing around money to prop up the economy, they say. Toomey worries that diseases of despair, including substance abuse, will deepen with unemployment and rising poverty, and supply chain disruptions could lead to civil unrest. He said there are segments of the economy, particularly in rural Pennsylvania, “that could be open today.” One early shutdown opponent was the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which argued businesses should be allowed to “adapt and innovate.” With one in 10 American workers suddenly unemployed and dismal corporate quarterly earnings reports expected, key Republicans on Capitol Hill say it’s time to shift strategies now. “We’re really trying to get this thing going quicker than a lot of people may expect,” said Republican Senator David Perdue in a radio interview. He spoke to the president over the weekend, he said, and Trump was already thinking about the transition. “What we see right now is the free market, free-enterprise system is under threat,” Perdue said. “Don’t come in and tell us how to run our lives.”Democrats warn that jumping ahead of public health guidelines could have disastrous effects if Americans retreat from social distancing and spark new hot spots that overrun hospitals with more patients than available beds. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a stark warning for Americans to “ignore the lies” and “listen to scientists and other respected professionals” to protect themselves and loved ones.”All of us want to resume the precious and beautiful lives that America’s unique freedoms provide,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democratic colleagues. “But if we are not working from the truth, more lives will be lost, economic hardship and suffering will be extended unnecessarily.”Some leading Republicans are pushing health care solutions. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the health committee, wants a “Manhattan Project” for testing, referring to the wartime effort to develop nuclear weapons, to give Americans confidence that children can return to school in the fall. Across the nation, though, end-the-shutdown protests are flaring up.In Texas, conservative state legislators said in a letter to Governor Greg Abbott it’s ultimately the “individual Texan’s responsibility” to keep themselves safe. Many are backed by Texas oilman Tim Dunn, who co-authored a similar letter to Trump.On Wednesday, drivers staged “Operation Gridlock” at the Michigan state capitol after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s decision to toughen rather than relax what already was one of the nation’s strictest stay-home orders. Among the groups promoting the effort on Facebook was one with ties to the politically connected DeVos family, even though Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stopped her political spending when she joined Trump’s Cabinet.
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China Denies US Allegations It’s Testing Nuclear Weapons
China on Thursday denied allegations in a U.S. State Department report that it was secretly testing nuclear weapons in violation of its international obligations. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing that the allegations about Chinese nuclear testing in the department’s Nuclear Compliance Reportwere “totally unfounded countercharges that confuse right and wrong.” “China has always performed its international obligations and commitments in a responsible manner, firmly upheld multilateralism, and actively carried out international cooperation,” Zhao said. “The U.S. accusation against China is made of thin air, which is totally unfounded and not worth refuting.” The 2020 Compliance Reportissued Wednesday accused China of failing to adhere to its non-proliferation commitments and suspend nuclear testing by maintaining a “high level of activity” last year at its Lop Nur test site in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang. China has pledged not to test nuclear weapons, but like the U.S. and several other nations has yet to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. China is an acknowledged nuclear power but claims it possesses only a fraction of the number of weapons maintained by the U.S. and Russia. Zhao on Thursday pointed to the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and other agreements as grounds for discounting Washington’s accusations. China, in contrast, has “made important contributions to upholding the international arms control and non-proliferation regime, as well as safeguarding international peace and security,” Zhao said. He also said the U.S. had yet to destroy its stock of chemical weapons and was continuously bolstering its armed forces in a manner that “undermines the global strategic balance and stability and obstructed the process of international arms control and disarmament.” “So, it is not qualified to be a judge or referee in this regard,” Zhao said.
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