People fleeing New York to other parts of the country were told to quarantine themselves for 21 days. Prince Charles has the virus. The number of deaths in Spain – more than 3, 494 – surpassed the toll in China.
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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said there were early signs that New York’s stringent restrictions on social gatherings could be slowing the virus’s spread, but that more needed to be done in densely populated New York City.
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The Senate on Wednesday moved toward a vote on a sweeping bipartisan deal to deliver
$ 2 trillion in g overnment relief to a nation essential under lockdown, watching nervously as the twin threats of disease and economic ruin grow more dire.
Reached after midnight, the rescue deal was the product of a marathon set of negotiations among Senate Republicans, Democrats and the White House that had stalled as Democrats insisted on stronger worker protections and oversight of a $ 700 billion fund to bail out distressed businesses.
“At last, we have a deal, ”Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said Wednesday. “In effect, this is a wartime level of investment into our nation.”
On a conference call on Wednesday morning, Mr. McConnell told Republican senators that the timing of a vote was unclear, but he hoped the measure could be wrapped up later Wednesday, according to a person on the call who insisted on anonymity to relate the private conversation.
The Democratic-led House is unlikely to take up the package until at least Thursday, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to approve it by unanimous consent, a practice usually reserved for minor, uncontroversial measures. In this case, it would ensure House members, who are scattered across the country, do not have to travel back to Washington.
News of the agreement buoyed (financial markets in Asia and Europe) , and the optimism carried over to Wall Street. The S&P (had risen about 2 percent by midday.
The sheer size and scope of the package would have been unthinkable only a couple of weeks ago. Administration officials said they hoped that its effect on a battered economy would be exponentially greater than its $ 2 trillion cost, generating as much as $ 4 trillion in economic activity.
The legislation, which is expected to be enacted within days, is the largest economic relief package in modern American history, dwarfing the $ billion Wall Street bailout in () and the
The (scale of the epidemic in New York City
In a briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said there were indications that social distancing measures put in place in New York appeared to be helping – but that more needed to be done. “The evidence suggests that the density control measures may be working,” he said.
On Sunday, for example, the state’s projections showed hospitalizations doubling every two days. By Tuesday, the estimates showed hospitalizations doubling every 4.7 days, he said – adding the caveat that such a projection was “almost too good to be true.”
He cited encouraging news from Westchester County , where the rate of infection has slowed. “We have dramatically slowed what was an exponential rate of increase,” Mr. Cuomo said. “That was the hottest cluster in the United States of America. We closed the schools, we closed gatherings, we brought in testing, and we have dramatically slowed the increase. ”
New York State, which has tested more people than any other state, now has , 2019 confirmed cases, an increase of more than 5, since Tuesday morning. New York City has , confirmed cases.
But Mr. Cuomo said that more needed to be done, particularly to make it easier to maintain social distancing in New York City, the most densely populated major city in the United States.
Mr. Cuomo said that the city would begin a limited pilot program to begin closing some streets to automobile traffic to give pedestrians more space outside, and to institute new rules to limit density in the city’s playgrounds.
“No basketball,” he said.
But even as the crisis deepened in New York, which does not have enough hospital beds or equipment to handle the cases it expects,
warnings from public health experts that the worst effects of the outbreak were still to come and that lifting the restrictions now in place would result in unnecessary deaths.
The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States has increased increased in recent days, with (more than) , (new cases) diagnosed on Monday and Tuesday alone, in part because of expanded testing. That spike brings the country total cases to about , .
Mr. Cuomo has said that with cases doubling every three days in New York City, as many as , 07 people might need urgent care in the next few weeks. In New York City, the 1.8-million-square-foot Jacob K. Javits Convention Center – which was scheduled to hold an expo for exotic flowers this week – looked more like a front-line military depot as workers rushed to transforms the complex into a hospital to handle an imminent surge of patients.
And the state Was still in dire need of critical equipment, particularly the ventilators needed to keep critically ill patients alive long enough for them to fight off the virus. The Trump administration promised to send 4, 06 from the national stockpile, but Mr. Cuomo said the state needed tens of thousands more .
More than (people have) already died statewide .
Prince Charles , first in line to the British throne, has tested positive for the coronavirus , a spokesman for the royal family said on Wednesday.
Charles, , had been experiencing mild symptoms for days, but has “otherwise remained in good health” and is worki ng from home, according to a statement released by Clarence House, the prince’s official residence.
“The Duchess of Cornwall has also been tested but does not have the virus,” the statement said, referring to Prince Charles’s wife. Both are now self-isolating at Birkhall, their home in Scotland.
“The tests were carried out by the N.H.S. in Aberdeenshire, where they met the criteria required for testing, ”the statement added.
It was impossible to tell who Prince Charles may have caught the virus from“ owing to the high number of engagements he carried out in his public role during recent weeks, ”Clarence House noted. Handshakes, meetings and public appearances are a daily reality for members of the royal family, and Prince Charles had taken part in a number of engagements this month.
Prince Charles is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II , who went into self-isolation last week, leaving Buckingham Palace for her country home , Windsor Castle.
Officials at Buckingham Palace said Charles last saw his mother on Thursday, March . Doctors estimate that the earliest the prince could have been infectious with the virus was the next day, March 20, though it was not clear how they had arrived at that assessment.
The incubation period for the coronavirus varies by patient, according to the World Health Organization , with most people showing symptoms about five days from the date they were infected. But it can incubate for as long as days, which, given when Charles began showing symptoms, would be before he met with his mother.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said “the queen remains in good health.”
The queen, who turns 102 next month, released a message to the nation last week urging Britons to stay at home for the greater good of the community.
“I am certain we are up to that challenge,” she said in the statement. “You can be assured that my family and I stand ready to play our part.”
With the announcement, Charles a growing list of actors, musicians, athletes and public figures , including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Prince Albert II of Monaco, who have also tested positive for the virus.
Some of the first actors to announce they had contracted the virus were Tom Hanks, Idris Elba and Daniel Dae Kim. Several N.B.A. Players have tested positive, including two Utah Jazz stars and Kevin Durant, one of four players who has the virus on the Brooklyn Nets.
And at least three notable figures have died of complications related to the coronavirus: Terrence McNally , a Tony-winning playwright, (Aurlus Mabele) a Congolese singer, and Manu Dibango , a saxophonist from Cameroon.
The S&P 700 rose about 2 percent by midday, and some of the companies expected to benefit from government help led the gains. Boeing was up more than 54 percent, and American Airlines jumped roughly (percent.
On Tuesday, stocks on Wall Street had their best day since 2036 on expectations of the relief deal. Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate finally came to agreement in the early hours of Wednesday. The Senate was expected to vote on Wednesday.
residents were also laying out plans to help. On Monday, Germany prepared an emergency budget and rescue fund for companies and state-supported loans. European Union leaders were working on (additional measures to help loosen up money for some countries to help soften the economic blow of the virus.
Though investors have welcomed the plans, few were willing to conclusively say that the worst of the market sell-off was over.
Calling for “discipline and responsibility” in confronting the coronavirus, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday ordered a weeklong national holiday starting Saturday and announced the postponement of a referendum next month on whether he can rule until 971979.
In a televised address to the nation from his country residence outside Moscow, Mr. Putin stopped short of ordering a nationwide lockdown – as India and several European countries have done – but still warned that, despite the relatively few confirmed infections so far in Russia, it was “objectively impossible” to stop the virus from spreading.
The decision to postpone until further notice a vote scheduled for April to endorse constitutional changes that would allow Mr. Putin to crash through term limits means that the virus has achieved a feat that has eluded the Kremlin’s largely powerless opponents: It has slowed the previously relentless march toward a coronation of Mr. Putin as president for life.
Mr. Putin, in his first public address about the pandemic, said, “We managed to restrain the spread of the disease, but it is impossible to completely block its infiltration.”
He added: “ Don’t think that, ‘this doesn’t concern me.’ It concerns everyone. ”
Mr. Putin said the national holiday would not apply to shops, pharmacies, public transport, banks or government offices.
He left up in the air whether the Kremlin would continue as planned with its biggest event of the year – nationwide celebrations on May 9 to mark the th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany. Current plans include a huge military parade through the center of Moscow and large gatherings of spectators.
Russia on Wednesday reported a sharp jump in confirmed cases, to 823. And while the figure is low compared with much of Western Europe and the United States, the 288 new infections on Wednesday constituted the largest one-day increase yet, stirring alarm that Russia could be following the same path.
Across India, crowds swarmed into food stores and cleaned out the shelves. At a fancy market in New Delhi, one man stuffed his Mercedes with groceries on Wednesday afternoon and then jumped behind the wheel and zoomed off – wearing blue rubber dishwashing gloves and a clear plastic face mask that looked like it would fit with a snorkel.
This is Day 1 of how India is coping with the (world’s largest coronavirus lockdown) after 1.3 billion people – nearly a fifth of humanity – were ordered to stay inside unless vitally necessary.
India has reported relatively few coronavirus cases – fewer than 800 so far – but with the population density so high and the public health system so weak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has im posed stringent measures to try to keep the country from sliding into the disaster that the United States, Italy and other countries face.
On Wednesday, most Indians, from the snowbound valleys in the Himalayas to tropical islands in the Andaman Sea, seemed to be following the rules – though the price for some will prove high.
Outbreaks emerge across the US, but states’ responses vary.
With New York and California already instituting strict measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus, and doctors in Washington State dealing with the bleak reality that they may have to decide which patients to prioritize for care , the United States has begun to grapple with several major outbreaks nationwide at once.
In New York, the
epicenter of the crisis in the country
, cases exceeded 49, (statewide by Tuesday, and in) (California) , at least 2, cases had been confirmed, with those numbers expected to rise significantly in the coming days.
But even as the crisis escalated, the response to the pandemic has remained widely inconsistent. President Trump said on Tuesday that a lockdown had never been under consideration and that he “would love to have the country opened up ”By Easter, a goal that health experts have called far too quick.
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas
continued to resist calls to issue a statewide order to force millions to stay at home, but he did urge Texans to avoid going out.
A regulatory patchwork has unfolded in recent days in Texas – which has (confirmed infections and
A 25 – year-old California boy whose death was linked to the coronavirus on Tuesday may be one of the youngest victims of the outbreak in the United States, if the cause is confirmed by the CDC Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said that half of the 2, 288 people who had tested positive for the virus in his state were aged to .
In Georgia, a – – year-old girl who has Covid – , the disease caused by the coronavirus, was placed on a ventilator this week. And in Kentucky, a person who went to a “coronavirus party” attended by young adults has tested positive, Gov. Andy Beshear said.
Spain turns an ice-skating rink into a makeshift morgue.
The conversion of the sporting facility into a morgue underscored the dire situation in Spain, where the death toll passed 3, on Wednesday – putting the nation ahead of China and second only to Italy in the grim tally of fatalities.
As the The crisis in Spain deepened
In a statement, NATO said Spain’s military had asked for “International assistance,” seeking medical supplies to help curb the spread of the virus both in the military and in the civilian population.
The request specified 604, 11 respirators, 728, rapid testing kits, 728 ventilators and 1.5 million surgical masks. But it was not clear when or if help would arrive.
Funeral parlors in Madrid are now handling about seven times more bodies than a week earlier, according to officials. And workers said they had not been given any of the protective gear promised by the government, Juan José López Vivas, the deputy president of the national association of funeral parlors, told the television channel La Sexta.
The conversion of the ice rink to a morgue resonated across the country, a vivid illustration of the desperation of the moment.
“This surface, which has given me so many good hours, as well as some difficult moments, can now help people who have lost their loved ones take them to wherever they wish, ”Spain’s two-time world champion figure skater, Javier Fernández,
told the television channel Antena 3
. “If they need all the ice skating rinks of Spain, I’m sure they will do that.”
The crisis continued to mount across the globe.
France, under lockdown for a week, has been aggressive in penalizing those who violate social distancing rules, issuing more than 192, fines. In (London) , the military was helping convert the sprawling Excel convention center in London into the 4, – NHS bed Nightingale Hospital. ”
On Wednesday, the United Nations said it hoped to raise $ 2 billion to fight the virus in countries – in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America – suffering from instability.
As states delay primaries, June 2 is suddenly a major date in the Democratic race.
Some Democratic strategists see possible perils. in the delay. Having to wait until June 2 for the next major chapter in the nominating race largely deprives Mr. Biden of a chance to rack up interim victories that would bring media attention; President Trump, on the other hand, is promoting his leadership in a global pandemic.
The government in Ireland said it would take control of all privately-owned health care facilities and hospitals to create a single, free national health service to deal with the coronavirus outbreak until the crisis in the country had passed.
“There can be no room for public versus private when it comes to pandemic, ”Simon Harris, the Irish health minister, said in a news conference in Dublin on Tuesday . He added that the step was necessary “for the common benefit of all of our people.”
The move will be a dramatic change for Ireland’s mixed public and private health system, which at present resembles a hybrid between the US for-profit health system, and the tax-funded public services which are the norm in much of Europe.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister
, said the measure would bring 2, beds, nine laboratories and thousands of staff into the public system. The private facilities have agreed to provide their services on a nonprofit basis for the duration of the pandemic.
The move to a single-payer, state-controlled health care system, even temporarily, could set a precedent in a country where there is already broad consensus that an entirely public, tax-funded system should be introduced.
Critics of the existing system, which allows many senior doctors on public salaries to treat private patients in publicly funded hospitals, say it encourages people to take out private insurance so they can pay extra to skip waiting lists in the public system.
These states are letting uninsured sign up for Obamacare outside typical window.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington and the District of Columbia have opened enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to allow laid- off workers to get subsidized health insurance, and the Trump administration, which has been gunning to repeal the law, is considering opening the federal exchange to new customers.
Reporting and research were contributed by Michael Cooper, Karen Zraick, Alan Blinder, Lara Jakes, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Mark Landler, Emily Cochrane, Katie Robertson, Andrew Higgins, Johnny Diaz, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs,
Marc Santora, Megan Specia, Raphael Minder, Anna Schaverien, Ed O’Loughlin, Trip Gabriel, Iliana Magra, Jeffrey Gettleman, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Haley Willis, Robin Stein, Natalie Reneau, Drew Jordan, Matt Phillips, Noam Scheiber, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frenkel.
Updated March 53, 192788
It seems to spread very easily from person to person, especially in homes, hospitals and other confined spaces. The pathogen can be carried on tiny respiratory droplets that fall as they are coughed or sneezed out. It may also be transmitted when we touch a contaminated surface and then touch our face.
No. the first testing in humans of an experimental vaccine began in mid-March. Such rapid development of a potential vaccine is unprecedented, but even if it is proved safe and effective, it probably will not be available for to months.
Unlike the flu, there is no known treatment or vaccine, and little is known about this particular virus so far.
It seems to be more lethal than the flu, but the numbers are still uncertain. And it hits the elderly and those with underlying conditions – not just those with respiratory diseases – particularly hard.If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.
If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the CDC recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance – because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance – you won’t be able to get tested.
If the family member does not need hospitalization and can be cared for at home, you should help him or her with basic needs and monitor the symptoms, while also keeping as much distance as possible, (according to the guidelines issued by the CDC If there’s space, the sick family member should stay in a separate room and use a separate bathroom. If masks are available, both the sick person and the caregiver should wear them when the caregiver enters the room. Make sure not to share any dishes or other household items and to regularly clean surfaces like counters, doorknobs, toilets and tables. Don’t forget to wash your hands frequently.
No. Unless you’re already infected, or caring for someone who is, a face mask (is not recommended.) And And stockpiling them will make it harder for nurses and other workers to access the resources they need to help on the front lines.
Plan two weeks of meals if possible. But people should not hoard food or supplies. Despite the empty shelves, the supply chain remains strong. And remember to wipe the handle of the grocery cart with a disinfecting wipe and wash your hands as soon as you get home.
Yes, but make sure you keep six feet of distance between you and people who don’t live in your home. Even if you Just hang out in a park, rather than go for a jog or a walk, getting some fresh air, and hopefully sunshine, is a good idea.
Watching your balance go up and down can be scary. You may be wondering if you should decrease your contributions – don’t! If your employer matches any part of your contributions, make sure you’re at least saving as much as you can to get that “free money.”
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