The coronavirus pandemic accelerated across Latin America, Russia and the Indian subcontinent on Friday even as curves flattened and reopening was underway in much of Europe, Asia and the United States.
Many governments say they have to shift their focus to saving jobs that are vanishing as quickly as the virus can spread. In the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, unemployment is soaring.  
The Federal Reserve chairman has estimated that up to one American in four could be jobless, while in China analysts estimate around a third of the urban workforce is unemployed.
But the virus is roaring through countries ill-equipped to handle the pandemic, which many scientists fear will seed the embers of a second global wave.
India saw its biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began, and Pakistan and Russia  recorded their highest death tolls. Most new Indian cases are in Bihar, where thousands returned home from jobs in the cities. For over a month, some walked among crowds for hundreds of miles.
Latin America’s two most populous nations — Mexico and Brazil — have reported record counts of new cases and deaths almost daily this week, fueling criticism of their presidents, who have slow-walked shutdowns in attempts to limit economic damage.  
Cases were rising and intensive-care units were also swamped in Peru, Chile and Ecuador — countries lauded for imposing early and aggressive business shutdowns and quarantines.  
Brazil reported more than 20,000 deaths and 300,000 confirmed cases Thursday night — the third worst-hit country in the world by official counts. Experts consider both numbers undercounts due to widespread lack of testing.
“It does not forgive, it does not choose race, or if you are rich or poor, black or white,” Bruno Almeida de Mello, a 24-year-old Uber driver, said at his 66-year-old grandmother’s burial in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s sad that in other countries people believe, but not here.”  
She had all the virus’s symptoms, but Vandelma Rosa’s death certificate reads “Suspected of COVID-19,” he said, because her hospital lacked tests. That means she didn’t figure in the death toll, which nevertheless on Thursday marked its biggest single-day increase: 1,181.
President Jair Bolsonaro has scoffed at the seriousness of the virus and actively campaigned against state governors’ attempts to limit movement and commerce.
Bolsonaro fired his first health minister for supporting governors. His second minister resigned after openly disagreeing with Bolsonaro about chloroquine, the predecessor of the anti-malarial often touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a viable coronavirus treatment.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador downplayed the threat for weeks as he continued to travel the country after Mexico’s first confirmed case. He insisted that Mexico was different, that its strong family bonds and work ethic would pull it through.  
The country is now reporting more than 400 deaths a day, and new infections still haven’t peaked.
Armando Sepulveda, a mauseleum manager in the massive Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec, said his burial and cremation business has doubled in recent weeks.
“The crematoriums are saturated,” Sepulveda said. “All of the ovens don’t have that capacity.” Families scour the city looking for funeral services that can handle their dead, because the hospitals can’t keep the bodies, he said.
Meanwhile Mexico’s government has shifted its attention to reactivating the economy. Mining, construction and parts of the North American automotive supply chain were allowed to resume operations this week.  
Russian health officials registered 150 deaths in 24 hours, for a total of 3,249. Many outside Russia have suggested the country is manipulating its statistics to show a comparatively low death rate. The total confirmed number of cases exceeded 326,000 on Friday.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who himself recovered from coronavirus, said earlier this week that only 27 regions out of 85 are ready to gradually lift their lockdowns. At least three cabinet ministers also contracted the disease, as well as the Kremlin spokesman.
China announced it would give local governments 2 trillion yuan ($280 billion) to help undo the damage from shutdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has now infected at least 5.1 million people worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The Bank of Japan said it would provide $280 billion in zero-interest, unsecured loans to banks for financing small and medium-size businesses.
European countries also have seen heavy job losses, but robust government safety-net programs in places like Germany and France are subsidizing the wages of millions of workers and keeping them on the payroll. Tourism, a major income generator for Europe, has become a flashpoint as countries debate whether to quarantine new arrivals this summer for the virus’s two-week maximum incubation period.
Spain’s National Statistics Institute published its tourism report Friday showing columns of zeros for overnight stays, average length of stays and occupancy rates in April. Spain is Europe’s second most popular tourist destination, after France, and an economic recovery without visitors is all but unthinkable.  
Nearly 39 million Americans have lost their jobs since the crisis accelerated  two months ago. States from coast to coast are gradually reopening their economies and letting people return to work, but more than 2.4 million people filed for unemployment last week alone.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said over the weekend that U.S. unemployment could peak in May or June at 20% to 25%, a level last seen during the depths of the Great Depression almost 90 years ago. Unemployment in April stood at 14.7%, a figure also unmatched since the 1930s.
In an eerie echo of famous Depression-era images, U.S. cities are authorizing homeless tent encampments, including San Francisco, where about 80 tents are now neatly spaced out on a wide street near city hall as part of a “safe sleeping village” opened last week. The area between the city’s central library and its Asian Art Museum is fenced off to outsiders, monitored around the clock and provides meals, showers, clean water and trash pickup.
Nathan Rice, a 32-year-old who is camping there, said he’d much rather have a hotel room than a tent on a sidewalk.
“I hear it on the news, hear it from people here that they’re going to be getting us hotel rooms,” he said. “That’s what we want, you know, to be safe inside.”
Despite an often combative approach  to scientists who disagree with him, Trump’s approval ratings have remained steady, underscoring the way Americans seem to have made up their minds about him. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says 41% approve of his job performance, while 58% disapprove. That’s consistent with opinions of him throughout his three years in office.
The World Bank announced a $500 million program for countries in East Africa battling COVID-19 and deadly flooding along with historic swarms of ravenous desert locusts. The added threat of the pandemic has further imperiled a region where millions lack regular access to food.
While many African countries have been praised for their response to the coronavirus, Tanzania is the most dramatic exception, run by a president who questions — or fires — his own health experts and says prayer has solved the crisis.  
The East African country’s number of confirmed virus cases hasn’t changed for three weeks, and the international community is openly worrying that Tanzania’s government is hiding the true scale of the pandemic. Just over 500 cases have been reported in a country of nearly 60 million people.
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Sitting outside an urgent care medical center, Michelle Thomas feels sick. She traveled 30 minutes across town from her Washington, D.C., neighborhood to seek treatment for a persistent cough and fever. Both are common symptoms for COVID-19 in a city that has lost at least 400 residents to the pandemic.“There’re no doctors’ offices in my neighborhood. I really don’t see a doctor regularly and wouldn’t know what to do if I got the virus,” Thomas told VOA.The 73-year-old retired schoolteacher is like millions of African Americans who have long-struggled to access adequate health care. Now, her concerns are heightened.“I know my age and health problems put me at greater risk for serious illness from the virus,” she said. Thomas’s plight comes as COVID-19 has proved especially deadly for many minority communities in America. Nationwide, more than 20,000 African Americans have died from the coronavirus, according to the American Public Media (APM) Research Lab. Authors of the survey acknowledged the numbers were incomplete because some states have not reported data broken down by race and ethnicity.  Even so, APM’s data show the black mortality rate from COVID-19 is three times higher than that of white people. Researchers believe minorities are more at risk of catching the virus because they disproportionately hold jobs for which teleworking and staying at home is not an option. Dr. Ala Stanford administers a COVID-19 swab test on Wade Jeffries in the parking lot of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, April 22, 2020.Snapshots of uneven health careMany longtime health care practitioners in urban areas say the pandemic has highlighted chronic shortcomings in health care delivery — and health outcomes — in African American neighborhoods.  “In D.C. neighborhoods, where 95% of the residents are black, the life expectancy is 72 years old. But just a few miles away in predominantly white neighborhoods, it is 87,” said Dr. Wayne Frederick, a surgical oncologist and president of Howard University, in Washington. “So, when you start looking at all the social determinants of health in both areas, you begin to see why the discrepancies exist.” In a city where in 2018, African Americans were estimated at 46% of the population, the Department of Health reports they account for 77% of COVID-19 deaths. By comparison, whites make up about 42% of city residents but just 11% of COVID-19 deaths. Nationwide, African Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population. A survey from 40 states and the District of Columbia found that black people account for 27% of COVID-19 deaths.  Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, left, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, departs a news conference with District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser at a temporary alternate care site constructed in response to the coronavirus outbreak.”This virus has not left the District,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a recent news conference. “We are working at building a healthy community and (to) improve access to better health care.”Decades of research show that many African Americans go untreated or undertreated for diabetes, hypertension and other medical conditions that add to the mortality risk for COVID-19. The problem extends to the nation’s capital, where in 2019, the federal government estimated that 97% of residents had some form of health insurance. Frederick blames poor health outcomes on a dearth of medical facilities in African American communities.“In one of the biggest populated black D.C. neighborhoods, there’s only one acute care facility, which is functioning at a very low level. And most of the acute care facilities are in the other neighborhoods,” he said. “It’s not a matter of not having health insurance. It’s a matter of having access to doctors’ facilities and other health care providers.” Some African American leaders are calling for more government spending directed at preventive care and coronavirus testing in black communities.“If you spend as much money on the lower tier of the health care outcomes, you actually help the entire system,” Frederick said. “We need more doctors and ambulatory care services in black neighborhoods.” He noted that Howard University’s medical school graduates more than 100 physicians every year, some of whom set up practices in underrepresented neighborhoods.In the short term, health officials are scrambling to increase testing and contact tracing in minority communities to slow down rates of infection.As Washington resident Thomas waits for her bus home, she said she hopes people in her community take the virus seriously. “I don’t want to see more people die,” she said. 
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In communities around the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts, families are marking the first Memorial Day without a veteran who was a parent, spouse or sibling. More than 70 have died of the coronavirus at the home. Relatives of the lost tell similar stories of their loved one, many who rarely spoke of their service, having moved on to tend to families and new careers at home. The outbreak at the Soldiers’ Home is one of the worst in the country and the subject of state and federal investigations.Each of their stories was different, but common strains repeat: Of humility and generosity; of finding joy in the unpretentious; of a sharp mind disappearing into fog or a hale body betrayed by age.And, of service, in war or in peace, that often went unspoken when they returned home.In their final years, these veterans found their place at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home in Massachusetts. And in their final days, as the coronavirus engulfed the home and killed more than 70, they found battle again.Left behind by these victims of the pandemic are those who were blessed by their kindnesses. Memorial Day dawns for the first time without them here, and a new emptiness pervades the little Cape Cods and prim colonials they once shared.At these doorsteps, they were heroes not for valor, not for the enemies they defeated, but for the tenderness they showed. Peek through their bay windows and screen doors and bedroom panes. There is no blizzard of ticker tape, no gunfire of salute, just a void, a hole, a chasm of what’s been lost.Seeking to capture moments of private mourning at a time of global isolation, Associated Press photographer David Goldman visited the homes of 12 families struggling to honor spouses, parents and siblings during a lockdown that has sidelined many funeral traditions.Goldman used a projector to cast large images of the veterans onto the homes of their loved ones, who looked out from doors and windows. The resulting portraits show both the towering place each veteran held in their loved ones’ lives — and the sadness left behind. Here are their stories.An image of veteran Alfred Healy is projected onto the home of his daughter, Eileen Driscoll, left, as she looks out the window with her sister, Patricia Creran, in Holyoke, Mass., May 7, 2020.Alfred Healy, 91, loved corny jokes and adored his family. He listened to audiobooks constantly and closely followed the news. He devoured history and was quick with facts on U.S. presidents. He was humble. He won a Bronze Star, but his family only found out how decorated a soldier he was when he was gone. He was a longtime U.S. Postal Service employee who rose to become a town postmaster. He was sharp as a tack and liked to deem things “snazzy” or “classy.” On his last night, the nurses gave him chocolate ice cream and showed him photos of some young relatives. And by dawn, he was gone.An image of veteran Constance ‘Kandy’ Pinard is projected onto the home she grew up in with her sister, Tammy Petrowicz, left, and brothers, Paul, center, and Brian Driscoll in Florence, Mass., May 14, 2020.Constance Pinard, 73, had a life with struggles: A marriage gone sour, the pressures of raising two children on her own, family rifts that grew worse with an aggressive case of dementia. But there were so many joys, too: The miles she drove in her Jeep or flew in the air to reach new places as a travel nurse, the rank of captain she achieved, the thrill of meeting Barry Manilow, the musician she loved. Her sister Tammy Petrowicz remembers a woman overflowing with energy “like the Energizer Bunny,” who was 16 years older but “still could run circles around me.” The Air Force veteran loved meeting new people wherever she went. Petrowicz recalls standing in a grocery store line with her, chit-chatting with strangers like they were old friends. “She talked to anybody and everybody,” her sister says.An image of veteran James Sullivan is projected onto the home of his son, Tom Sullivan, left, as he looks out a window with his brother, Joseph Sullivan, in South Hadley, Mass., May 4, 2020.James Sullivan, 99, grew up with nothing and appreciated everything, a consummate gentleman who found joy in the small things — the Red Sox on TV, a cold Bud Light in his hand, a fresh tomato out of the garden. Sullivan was an artillery technician in the Army during World War II who won the Bronze Star. He had a mischievous side, as evidenced by the time his father told him he couldn’t play ball because he had to paint the garage. He obliged, painting it top to bottom, windowpanes and all. He was a liquor store clerk, a school custodian and a city councilman, a man who always beamed with a smile right up to the end of his life. He died four days shy of his 100th birthday. Quiet, unselfish, inquisitive about others. “How you doing, pal?” he’d ask. Whenever someone would ask him the same, he offered something similar: “Never had a bad day.”An image of veteran Charles Lowell is projected onto the home he shared with his wife, Alice, for 30 years as she stands at left with her daughter, Susan Kenney, in Hardwick, Mass., May 2, 2020.Charles Lowell, 78, was a missile guide technician and an IBM operations manager, a Masonic lodge master and town selectman, a volunteer firefighter and paramedic. Along the way, his life was littered with good deeds — the troubled teenager he’d take in, the hungry family he’d help with groceries — done with little notice or unmentioned altogether. “He didn’t tell people things like that,” his daughter Susan Kenney says. She remembers a father always teaching her something new and always trying to make people laugh, something his wife, Alice Lowell, says his colleagues appreciated. “It wasn’t like going to work,” she says of the man she knew since she was a child. “It was going to play with Chuck.”An image of veteran Stephen Kulig is projected onto the home of his daughter, Elizabeth DeForest, as she looks out the window of a spare bedroom as her husband, Kevin, sits downstairs in Chicopee, Mass., May 3, 2020.Stephen Kulig, 92, always had a smile on his face and hard candies in his pocket. The list of roles he played was long: veteran of World War II and Korea, devoted Boston sports fan, bingo caller, school dance chaperone, altar server, soup kitchen volunteer, Knights of Columbus member. His daughter Elizabeth DeForest remembers a man who was a natural caregiver — for his wife of 63 years, for his five children and for his parents and in-laws. “I use the word fierce to describe him,” DeForest says. “He was really fiercely proud of his family. He was fierce in the way that he practiced faith and he taught it to our family and to all of us. Just fierce in the way he loved and protected the people that mattered to him.”An image of veteran Chester LaPlante is projected onto the home of his son, Randy LaPlante, as he looks out a window with his wife, Nicole, and their sons, Evan and Blake, at their home in Amsterdam, N.Y., May 5, 2020.Chester LaPlante, 78, had a knack for improving things wherever he went. He restored cars and could repair just about anything, and in the lives of his three children, he was the jack-of-all-trades father who knew how to make them smile. His son Randy LaPlante remembered his father giving him “bear rides” around the living room, rubbing his beard against his little face and buying him a go-kart. Later, the elder LaPlante took his son under his wing and taught him about being a machinist, a career he holds to this day. “I don’t know where I would be without him,” LaPlante says.An image of veteran Harry Malandrinos is projected onto the home of his son, Paul Malandrinos, as he looks out a window with his wife, Cheryl, in Wilbraham, Mass., May 16, 2020.Harry Malandrinos, 89, was a quiet man, but had many stories to tell: of fighting a war in Korea, of touring the U.S. as a band’s drummer, of four decades as a public school teacher. “When he spoke, you listened, because he didn’t waste his words,” his daughter-in-law Cheryl Malandrinos says. He always had a joke, was a master woodworker, avidly rooted for the Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins and would happily settle for “Family Feud” if his teams weren’t on TV. Every now and again, his son Paul Malandrinos would run into a former student of his father’s who would sing his praises. “He was pretty much the working-class guy that represents so many of us,” his daughter-in-law says.An image of veteran Francis Foley is projected onto the home of his wife, Dale Foley, left, as she looks out a window with their daughter, Keri Rutherford, in Chicopee, Mass., April 29, 2020.Francis Foley, 84, never learned to read music but could play any song by ear. He loved a cup of coffee and something sweet from Dunkin’ Donuts. He kept the nurses at the home laughing. He was fiercely protective of his family. Ask his family about the man they lost, and the words flow easily about the card-carrying union carpenter, Army veteran, devoted husband of 54 years and father of four. “He was strong. He was funny. He was engaging. He was ornery. He was feisty,” his daughter Keri Rutherford says. “He was still full of life. And then within days, he’s gone.”An image of veteran Roy Benson is projected onto the home of his daughter, Robin Benson Wilson, left, as she looks out a doorway with her husband, Donald, in Holland, Mass., May 13, 2020.Roy Benson, 88, whistled a lilting song throughout his life, one of the things imprinted on the minds of those who loved him, like the way he’d stir sugar into his morning coffee or holler for a visitor to return the minute they stepped out the door. His daughter Robin Benson Wilson calls them “comfort sounds” that signaled “the world is good.” He was a towering 6-foot-4. He made friends easily and often, always finding a familiar face wherever he went. He was a mechanic in the Korean War and it seemed like he could fix anything. With old age, his ability to whistle faded. But during a Christmastime visit by Benson Wilson to the Soldiers’ Home, her father managed to pucker his lips and offer a bit of that familiar tune one last time.An image of veteran Emilio DiPalma, is projected onto the home of his daughter, Emily Aho, left, as she looks out a window with her husband, George, in Jaffrey, N.H., April 30, 2020.Emilio DiPalma, 93, had gone off to war as a happy-go-lucky kid, but it didn’t take long for his Hollywood visions of battle to dissolve into the reality of watching friends die. After the Germans were defeated, DiPalma was sent to Nuremberg, where he made copies of documents detailing war crimes, watched over Nazis in their prison cells and stood guard beside the witness box in the courtroom where the evils of genocide were detailed. One time, he filled the glass of one of the most powerful Nazis — Hermann Goring — with toilet water. Back home in the U.S., he lived a life of humility, rarely talking about his service. “He did all of this in World War II and we hardly knew about it,” says his daughter Emily Aho.An image of veteran James Mandeville is projected onto the home of his daughter, Laurie Mandeville Beaudette, as she looks out a window with her son, Kyle, left, and husband, Mike, in Springfield, Mass., May 12, 2020.James Mandeville, 83, had a playfulness to him that never seemed to fade. With his grandchildren, he’d swim and wrestle and play basketball, even after he started using a wheelchair. He’d play cards with his daughter Laurie Mandeville Beaudette and, if she left the table, she’d return to find the deck had been stacked. She took to calling him “Cheater Beater.” He found joy in babies and dogs and for all his fun-lovingness, he imparted something deep in those who were close to him. “He always made me feel like I was the most important person in the world,” she says. “We were best friends.”An image of veteran Samuel Melendez is projected onto the home of his nieces, Janet Ramirez, right, and Mary Perez, as they look out a doorway in Chicopee, Mass., May 17, 2020.Samuel Melendez, 86, would clam up and appear sad when someone would ask about his time in Korea. But he was affectionate and easygoing, a man who’d let a young relative have a seat on his lap or give them a dollar from his pocket, which made them feel rich. He loved the island of his heritage, Puerto Rico. He loved dominoes and family gatherings and would jump on a plane whenever someone needed him. When he became less independent, he went to live with his niece Janet Ramirez and when he needed more help, he moved to the Soldiers’ Home, where she is a nurse’s aide. She lost her own father when she was young and as her uncle grew sicker, Ramirez slipped away to his room to hold his hand or to play Spanish music on her phone and put it to his hear. “I felt like he was my dad,” she says.    
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U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered flags on all federal buildings and monuments lowed to half-staff for the next three days in memory of all Americans who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.He made the announcement late Thursday on Twitter at the same time he said the lowered flags Monday will also honor servicemen and women “who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation” as the country marks Memorial Day.Meanwhile, Michigan’s attorney general said Trump may not be invited back to the state if he refuses to wear a face mask in public.Trump on Thursday visited a Ford auto factory near Detroit that has been converted into a plant to build ventilators.All of the Ford executives who were showing Trump around the plant were wearing face masks. But Trump, as he has always done, refused to wear one.Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said it isn’t just Ford Motors’ policy that all visitors to its plants wear a mask – it is also state law.“He’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state … we’re going to have to take action” against any company that allows it in the future,” Nessel said.When asked if Trump was told it was not acceptable to not wear a mask in the plant, Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said, “It’s up to him.”Trump claimed he did wear a mask out of view of reporters because he said he did not want to give the media the pleasure of seeing it.The president has reportedly told White House aides that he does not want to wear a mask in public because he thinks it makes him look weak.A member of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment also known as The Old Guard wears a face mask as he places flags in front of each headstone for “Flags-In” at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 21, 2020, ahead of Memorial Day.Complaints from many Democrats and some governors that the White House’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been incoherent has apparently had little effect on Trump’s approval rating.A new poll by the Associated Press and University of Chicago gives him a 41 percent job approval rating — a number that has been consistent throughout his presidency.Also Thursday, the president said the government has made an agreement with British drugmaker AstraZeneca to produce 400 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine.AstraZeneca said it has received more than $1 billion from federal researchers.“We have a lot of things happening on the vaccine front,” Trump told reporters. “We’re so far ahead of where people thought we’d be.”The U.S. government has other deals with Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and the French company Sanofi for vaccine development.Some critics have said they are concerned that rich countries such as the United States will corner the market on vaccines because of the huge amounts of money they are investing.Experts have said a coronavirus vaccine may not be ready for as long as 18 months, but recent progress in testing indicates one may be ready sooner than later.The coronavirus has taken the life of someone who spent 55 years in the White House but never made headlines or stood behind a microphone in front of reporters.Wilson Roosevelt Jerman was a White House butler who served every president from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama before a stroke forced him into retirement in 2012.His granddaughter said he died last week of COVID-19.The Obamas, Clintons, and the George W. Bush family all said Thursday that Jerman was a kind and generous man who helped make the vast and sometimes cold and unfriendly White House feel like a home.  
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is implementing changes to the security checkpoint process at airports to reduce risks of cross-contamination in light of the coronavirus pandemic. With Memorial Day weekend approaching, many of TSA’s changes have already begun, and more are to be added nationwide by mid-June.  A traveler pulls down her protective mask as a TSA agent compares her face to her identification at a security entrance at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, May 18, 2020, in SeaTac, Wash.Changes already in effect include optional eye protection and plastic face shields for TSA officers, routine cleaning and disinfecting of common surfaces, plastic shielding at checkpoints and other social distancing precautions. In order to minimize potential cross-contamination, travelers are encouraged to place items from their pockets — such as wallets and keys — as well as belts directly into carry-on bags rather than bins.  Food should now be packed in clear plastic bags to be scanned separately so TSA officers will not have to open carry-ons for further inspection. Passengers will scan their own boarding passes and hold them up to TSA officers for visual inspections to limit touch contact. If carry-on items that should have been removed are found, passengers may be asked to repeat the security process in order to limit TSA officers having to manually search belongings.   Face masks for passengers and social distancing practices are strongly suggested, as well. At this time last year, more than 2 million total travelers passed through checkpoints in a single day, according to the TSA. That number dropped off significantly in mid-March but has been steadily increasing. Today, that number is around 230,000. “In the interest of TSA front-line workers and traveler health, TSA is committed to making prudent changes to our screening processes to limit physical contact and increase physical distance as much as possible,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “We continue to evaluate our security measures with an eye towards making smart, timely decisions benefiting health and safety, as well as the traveler experience.” TSA advises travelers to check with individual airports and airlines for specific COVID-19 guidelines, as they may vary. 
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The Pentagon has rescinded a recruiting policy that banned anyone who was hospitalized because of COVID-19 from joining the military without a waiver, a top official said Thursday. Matthew Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, told reporters Thursday that he had nixed the interim policy guidance and that the military had returned to its previous guidelines for military recruits. He said COVID-19 cases would be processed on a case-by-case basis, going through the infectious disease history of each individual recruit and then relying on the attending physician to determine if the recruitment candidate meets the military’s accession standards. In this image provided by the U.S. Army, recent Army basic combat training graduates have their temperatures taken as they arrive at Fort Lee, Va, on March 31, 2020, after being transported using sterilized buses from Fort Jackson, S.C.Chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters the military would look at COVID-19 hospitalizations as it does underlying illnesses such as asthma, which is not an automatic disqualifier for joining the military. “Like any other disease, an underlying damage or illness or harm that results from that would have to be examined by a physician (to) make a determination whether they can meet the standards for the force,” Hoffman said. The previous guidance, revealed earlier this month, dictated that individuals who were hospitalized with COVID-19 were “medically disqualified for accession, subject to further review of hospitalization/comorbidity records, and waiver by a Service Medical Waiver Authority.” Military Entrance Processing Command (MEPCOM), which screens military applicants, said in a statement given to VOA on May 7 that patients who were hospitalized “may be contagious for a longer period than others” and “are likely to require evaluation for residual physical performance limitations (e.g., pulmonary and end-organ function) before medical qualification.”    Long-term health effects for this group “are unknown,” the command said, which is why a waiver review was required.  COVID-19 and current troops  COVID-19 hospitalizations still are “not immediate disqualifications” for current troops, according to a senior defense official. But those who are no longer able to perform their duties would need to undergo a medical board process that could lead to a change in military specialization or a discontinuation of service.  “This is similar to what’s done with any illness or injury obtained while in the military,” the senior official told VOA earlier this month.  
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An armed person wounded a sailor at a Texas naval air station Thursday before being killed by security forces, officials said.The U.S. Navy said the security team “neutralized” an active shooter at the Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi about 6:15 a.m. Thursday. The shooter was shot and killed by security personnel, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details about an ongoing investigation.One sailor assigned to the security team was injured but was in good condition, the Navy said.The injured Navy sailor was shot but was wearing body armor, said another U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information not yet made public.The FBI in Houston said it will lead the investigation. Neither investigators nor the Navy provided details on the shooter or a possible motive.Attorney General William Barr was briefed on the shooting, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.The facility was on lockdown for about five hours Thursday morning, but that was lifted shortly before noon. One gate remained closed.  The station had a similar lockdown last December. In another incident at the base last year, a man pleaded guilty to destruction of U.S. government property and possession of a stolen firearm for ramming his truck into a barricade at the Corpus Christi station.
 
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